Suspicions
by Sophie Flamel
Summary: She's dead. She's dead. A cut to the arm, a blow to the head. She's dead. Lance wakes up one morning to find the police at his dorm. He's immediately suspicious of Keith who does his best to hide his guilt. Who's the murderer? Lance, Hunk and Shiro are determined to find out, especially since the murder hit so close to home for them.
1. Lance

Lance shot at another enemy ship, his laser melting the metal and causing a small explosion. He turned around fast and attacked another alien ship, hearing Hunk screaming in his helmet set.

"Hunk, calm down. It's just one fleet."

"You say that, but I've already hit the ground three times in the last two minutes and I don't think my guts can take another one. I'm going to puke, I swear."

"I got your back." Lance shouted, firing up his sonic cannon and taking down five ships at once. He was about to fire again when Hunk yelled his name.

"Lance! Wake up!" _Well that doesn't make sense, I'm already awake. I thought you were supposed to be smart Hunk._ "Lance! Wake up! Lance, come on man you've got to see this! Wake up dude!"

The action unfolding in front of Lance slowed down until it came to a full stop. _What the hell, Hunk? What is happening? One second I'm shooting bad guys and now they're not even attacking me anymore._

"Lance! Come on, they're bound to leave soon. We got to check it out now. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Lance's vision went black and it took another second for his eyelids to open slowly. Hunk was shaking him violently and yelling his name repeatedly.

"I'm awake, Hunk. What the fuck?" Lance groaned, shoving Hunk away as he stirred from sleep. Bright morning light was coming into the dorm room from their only window, blinding him momentarily.

"Dude, the police are outside. I think there's a dead body." Hunk explained, rubbing his arm gently where Lance had hit him.

"Woah! And also eww. But mostly awesome, I think. Who is it?" Lance exclaimed, getting out of bed and reaching the window. Their room had a view on the entrance to the building, the small courtyard now filled with two police cars and an ambulance. "Is it someone we know?" Lance added, his eyes focused on what was happening outside.

"I couldn't see who it was, but we should get down there." Hunk was already wearing his shoes and jacket even though he was still in his pajamas.

"How did you know there's a body?" Lance asked, "I can't see shit down there." He grabbed his own jacket and shoes, not bothering to change as well.

"They covered something in a black sheet earlier. It has to be a body, right? That's what they do to bodies at crime scenes, at least in the movies."

The two boys rushed out of their room, not even bothering to lock the door. They ran down the stairs and joined the crowd that had amassed at the bottom. The police were outside, still taking some pictures of the scene.

"How long are they going to stay here?" Lance asked randomly into the crowd.

"I heard they're mostly done, maybe an hour?" answered someone in front, turning to face Lance. It was a blonde girl with hazel eyes which Lance had never met before. _Well hello beautiful._ "I think they also want to interrogate everyone in the building."

"Do you know what happened? Did someone die?" Hunk asked, looking slightly sick at the thought of seeing a dead body.

"I got here a few minutes ago, but it looks like the resident assistants know more than we do, they keep trying to get us back to our rooms."

"Well that's not going to work; I'm not going back up without answers." Lance said, scanning the room for his resident assistant and friend Shiro. He finally found the white tuft of hair belonging to him near the front door, pushing students away. Grabbing Hunk's hand, Lance swam through the crowd, receiving insults left and right, until he reached Shiro.

"Shiro, buddy, what is going on?" His tone had started joyfully but one look at Shiro's features and it switched to deep concern. The older man looked fatigued and older, bags under his eyes looking heavier than they ever did during exam season. Shiro tried a cheerful smile at the sight of Lance but it felt forced.

"I can't tell you. The police will make a statement when they're done."

"But you know, right?" Hunk asked carefully.

"Yes, but I'm not allowed to say anything."

"Not even to your friends? Come on, we're your favorite youthlings to look after." Shiro's smile looked more real at Lance's comment, but soon went back into a frown.

"I could get into trouble." Shiro tried as a last attempt to reason his friends.

"We won't tell." Lance moved closer to Shiro, inciting him to confide in them. Shiro stayed silent for another few seconds before sighing.

"It's Allura." He gave in, shifting his look downward. "She's dead." He added in whisper through a voice heavy with grief. He looked about to cry. Overcoming his initial shock, Lance reached Shiro's shoulder with his hand and said:

"That's rough, buddy." Hunk's very serious look of disapproval was all Lance needed to know he had somehow fucked up.

"Forgive Lance and his love of crappy one liners of any kind." Hunk wrapped his arms around Shiro as best as he could. "We're here for you. Whatever you need, man." Shiro locked up, the lifted corners of mouth slightly overshadowing the tears in the corners of his eyes.

"Thanks guys. Right now I just need help keeping those idiots away from the crime scene."

"You got it!" Lance exclaimed, more than happy to help his friend. He turned around to the crowd and added, "There is nothing to see here, people. You can go back to sleeping, or studying."

"Like that's ever going to happen." Sarcastically said a voice which Lance recognized even before he turned to face who it belonged to.

"No one asked you opinion, Keith." Lance said, crossing his arms over his chest in the hopes of making his point across. Keith looked nonplussed as he managed to get through the two people separating him from Lance and the rest of the crew. He reached them, and looked directly at Shiro, purposefully ignoring the other two.

"Are you okay, Shiro?"

"I'll be fine, Keith. Don't worry about me." Shiro replied, a small smile escaping his lips.

"Wait, you told him?" Lance practically squealed, pointing his finger at Keith. The other looked back at him, a single eyebrow raised.

"Keith was the one who found her." Shiro whispered, once again looking down. Keith reached out to his friend, a rare compassionate and semi-comforting smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, Shiro." Keith said in a tone that sounded more emotionally charged than it should be. Shiro looked up for a second and mutual understanding passed between the two.

The crowd grew louder behind them as Shiro had not really said anything in a while and the other resident assistants had already given up and gone upstairs. Shiro stood up, determined, and addressed the others:

"Listen up, people! The police are going to be here for another hour at least. You can't leave the building until they are done and have a way to contact you. You will all have to talk to them about what you were doing last night and if you saw anything out of the ordinary. Until then, go back to your rooms, there's nothing to do here."

A common disappointment groan rose as students began to move slowly towards the elevator, few of them going up the stairs. Shiro turned to his friends.

"You guys should go back up as well; I don't want to get a bad rep for having favorites."

"See you later, Shiro!" Lance said as he and Hunk followed the crowd to the elevator.

"That means you too, Keith." Shiro added after waving goodbye to the other two. Keith sighed.

"You text me if there's anything, okay? Don't do anything stupid." Keith paused, "I'm really sorry." He repeated, joining Lance and Hunk at the elevator. They had to wait a few more minutes for the waiting line to be empty, but they eventually went back to their respective rooms. Shiro was left alone at the entrance, staring blankly at the empty space in front of him.


	2. Keith

The interview with the police left a guilty memory on Keith's mind. Not that it had gone particularly wrong, he just felt awkward talking to the police about such things. He remembered when the officer had asked him:

"So, you were the one who found her?"

"Uh…." Keith had tried to get his answer out, but the memory of Allura's lifeless face was still haunting him. He had gone out for a jog around 5 a.m. because he couldn't sleep anymore, and had almost stepped on her when he got out of the building. He had finally made the call to the police after getting over his initial shock, but that didn't mean he didn't see her staring blue eyes, all milky with death, looking directly at him.

Keith wasn't one to be overly disgusted by what could generally be considered gross. He had a strong stomach and he was especially thankful that morning for it. However, looking at the corpse of someone you knew and could have considered a friend before even eating breakfast was not recommended for anyone, even with a strong stomach.

Keith made it into his room right after the interview and collapsed on his bed face down. His roommate Nathan still wasn't here, but Keith knew he wouldn't be long. It was Sunday afternoon after all, and Nathan liked to be in his room to do late night homework before the week began. This allowed Keith to have some time to turn to his back and stare pointlessly at the ceiling, wondering about what had happened. If he could re-live the last twenty four hours, would he live them differently?

The timeline he chose to tell the police was as close to the truth as he could get. He said he had been watching a movie until midnight, went down to get some chips from the vending machine downstairs, and finally got to sleep around 1 a.m. The officer seemed to have believed him. After all, this was the US and admitting you worked your way down three bottles of beer when you were only nineteen wouldn't do much good to your record.

Keith rolled to his side and closed his eyes in hopes of falling asleep. A mental image of Allura's corpse dissuaded him and he opened them up again. _So much for sleeping it off._ He had tried his best to convey to Shiro how sorry he felt earlier, but he could still feel a weight on his chest. _Yeah, I think I would do things differently if I could go back twenty four hours. I really fucked up._

He brought his knees up to his chest and tried to breathe evenly, but all he managed to do was rock back and forth in a gentle rhythm. When he couldn't take it anymore, he got up, sat at his desk and opened up his laptop. He was usually on time with much of his assignments, and he currently had nothing urgent to do. He tried to get started on an essay due two weeks later, but his mind was scrambled with incoherent thoughts and he gave up after staring at a blank word document for twenty minutes.

Frustrated, he closed his laptop and went back to sit on his bed. The sun outside his window was slowly setting over the horizon, giving warm shades of orange and red to the world around him; but to Keith it felt as if the sky were bleeding. Bleeding like Allura's head when it had hit the pavement. Bleeding like her ripped up arm when she had probably tried to defend herself. Keith shook the images out of his head; but they remained, reminding him that he could have done something. He could have saved her. _You don't know that!_

It didn't matter whether he could have done something or not, the guilt was eating him raw and he would much rather have to hear Lance sing in the shower for twenty four hours straight rather than be reminded of the events of the last twenty four hours. _Scratch that, he would be able to listen to Lance singing for the rest of his life._

The door swung open and Nathan appeared; a huge backpack on his shoulder.

"Hey, roomie. What's up with the police downstairs? They interviewed me and wouldn't tell me why. I'm slowly freaking out over here." Nathan asked, putting down his bag.

"Somebody got m…." Keith tried to force the blockage in his throat, "died." He finally managed to say. Nathan sat down on his own bed and looked directly at Keith.

"Wait, somebody died? Here? But, they wouldn't have called the police if…" Nathan seemed to think for a couple of seconds, "It was murder, wasn't it?" a look of surprise on his face, making Keith even more uncomfortable than he already was, though he was determined in not showing it.

"We don't know for sure yet, the police wouldn't tell us anything. They interrogated everyone in the building though, so I guess they're going to get some clues soon."

"Man, that is so cool! A murder investigation, right here! It's going to be like living in a crime show, only for real!" Nathan's enthusiasm seemed to die down as he scrutinized Keith's face. "Are you okay dude?"

"Fine." Replied Keith, looking down to play with the rim of his shirt.

"Okay, I don't believe you, but okay." Nathan got up and clasped his hands together. "Well, I've got some catching up to do on a bunch of work, so I'm going to get to it. But you can still bother me if there's something you want to talk about."

"I told you, I'm fine." Keith said a little harshly.

"Yeah, and you don't look guilty like someone who broke into the secret candy hiding spot and ate all the red gummy bears." Keith looked at Nathan, and he swore that Nathan could see through him in this instant. "I've lived with you for more than a year now; I know what faces you make when you're trying to hide something. But I also know that prying you for information won't work, so since I've got a shit ton of homework to do, I'm going to do that and let you live." Nathan finally turned his back to him to face his computer and Keith was left alone in his thoughts. _Or as alone as you can be in a shared college dorm room._

He sat for a couple more minutes, not knowing what to do, when he decided he was going to grab a few beers from the nearest convenience store. He knew it was probably a bad idea, but it was better than sitting on his bed and trying to look neutral for hours. He took his jacket off the hook on the door after putting on his boots and reached for his wallet before going out the door.

"Mind telling me where you're going at this hour?" Nathan asked before Keith could fully close the door.

"Convenience store. We're out of beer." Nathan didn't say anything for some time as if he was thinking over what he could say in this situation before giving a brief: "Okay," and returning to his work. Keith closed the door completely and locked it out of habit.

The ten minutes' walk to the store was refreshing and slightly soothing. It wasn't as warm as it had been during the day, and Keith always preferred cold weather over heat. It calmed his nerves and allowed him to think clearly. He reached his destination and looked for the beer aisle. He knew that was a pretty stereotypical drink for a guy, but it was the only thing he had liked so far and he wasn't one to change his habits. _Also, they were much easier to buy than any hard alcohol._

He had been deciding which brand would be the best quality/price quotient ( _God he was such a cheap nerd)_ when the costumer bell of the store rang, indicating he was no longer alone. He really hoped it wasn't an older woman like the last time. She had gotten him kicked out because she kept on insisting he was underage. So now Keith had to come only when the part-time student was here since the owner had banned him. Thankfully, he recognized instantly who it was upon seeing him.

"Keith. Hey. Wasn't really expecting you here." Shiro said awkwardly.

"Me either." Keith paused, realizing why Shiro indeed here. "It's a bad idea." He blurted out.

"What? Keith, I'm three years older than you, I don't think you're in a position to tell me what's a good or bad idea." Shiro replied harshly. _Oh shit, now he's mad. Great job, Keith, you fucked up yet again!_

"Sorry, I didn't mean to parent you. I just thought, maybe drinking tonight wouldn't be the best way to…you know." _Smooth, real smooth. No wonder you got no friends._ Shiro seemed to calm down however.

"My bad. It's just, this is hard for me, and I thought it wouldn't harm to take the edge off a bit." Shiro grabbed a six pack of beer and looked at its price. Keith desperately wanted to help his friend. Not only because he felt guilty about what had happened, but also because Shiro was the only reason he was still here. He was more than a best friend, Shiro was like a brother he never had. He couldn't let him down, even if that meant disagreeing with him.

"Look, I've got an idea. You want to drink, and I want to drink. Let's just get a six pack and watch some ridiculous comedy show together." Keith held his breath. He had never proposed anything of the sort with Shiro; he was his resident assistant after all. He was nearly sure he had stepped over the boundary and was going to be revoked of privileges when Shiro simply said:

"Yeah, I guess that'll work." Keith finally took the breath he had held for so long. His face turned red with the embarrassment and the lack of oxygen. "But I'm also doing it because I don't want you drinking by yourself all that much." _There it was again. Even completely devastated, Shiro was still keeping tabs on everyone and putting their health before his._ Keith gave a groan of disapproval in response and they set out to buy the six pack of beer Shiro was holding.

They shared the price and got back to their dorms. Lights were on in most rooms and only faint music could be heard coming from an open window on the third floor. _You can tell it's Sunday._ Shiro had decided they would carry on their little night activity in his room since he wasn't sharing it with anyone. Keith was dubious that the remainders of Allura's stuff would help, but he couldn't just kick Nathan out of their room, even for a mourning friend.

As they chose which show to watch and settled down on Shiro's couch, Keith couldn't help but be distracted by the fluctuating atmosphere. Shiro would be fine one moment, saying a show title for Keith to agree or disagree on, and then he would be silent, the air heavy with sorrow. Keith had never lost anyone important mostly because he never had anyone important. He couldn't begin to understand what Shiro was feeling right now, and he felt increasingly inadequate. _Shiro shouldn't be spending time with me; he should be with friends who can be compassionate and understanding._

Somehow, all those feelings got tuned down into a buzzing murmur as the show they had finally settled on started. Keith eagerly opened his beer and Shiro's and tried as best as he could to at least not make his friend feel worse. Every look he took at Shiro reminded him of the weight on his chest, but he knew that now was not the time to confess what had happened. _It would probably never be the time to say such a thing._

As the evening wore on, Shiro's mood felt lightened and he was even laughing at times. Keith had limited his number of beers to two, even though he knew Shiro had the highest alcohol tolerance he had ever seen. His friend didn't complain and when he was finished, made himself some chamomile tea. Keith had to leave eventually if either of them wanted to get to class the next day without falling asleep at their desk. He brought the remaining beer with him and wished Shiro a good night's sleep. As soon as he closed the door, he knew deep down that Shiro would not sleep tonight. Or probably the night after that. Keith may not know anything about losing someone you love, but he knew the horrible things a mind in pain could come up with when it was hurt enough.


	3. Hunk

Hunk hadn't expected this to become such a huge deal. He had woken up that morning to find that the cops were outside his window. At first, he couldn't see anything but at one point, they dragged a long black bag on a stretcher. Hunk blinked at least twenty times before he had to assume he wasn't dreaming. _That has to be a body!_ He had woken up Lance and investigated the matter.

But now that he knew whose body was in that bag, he felt sicker than he had ever been. Lance was restless in their room, pacing around and murmuring to himself, convinced Keith was guilty somehow; but Hunk couldn't take it anymore. He had put on his headphones and started making some cookies. Baking or even cooking in a dorm room never was ideal, but that was the whole point. They had a cafeteria downstairs, so why would he need to use the tiny and rarely cleaned kitchen on this floor.

However, Hunk needed to cook to stay sane. It was his only way to take his mind off things when life got too hard. He would always bake an enormous amount of cookies during exam season and most likely make at least one homemade meal a week. He now also had connections with the chef in the cafeteria who sneaked him non-used perishables whenever he could. They didn't always go together as a meal, but it put Hunk's palate and skills to the test.

Today, he was feeling like baking cookies, mostly because he did not have any fresh ingredients and baking took more than one hour if one was dedicated enough for quality. Lance was still pacing behind him, but he couldn't hear him over the music blasting in his ears.

Once we was done with the batter, he brought it along with the baking pan in the tiny kitchen, leaving Lance to his meditations. He didn't know how many cookies he would be able to make, but he knew he still had about thirty minutes before he needed to get back to his room. _Lance is really annoying when he gets obsessed over Keith for no reason. If only he could stop this rivalry thing and realize that the kid is alright!_

Hunk was never one to get mad at his friends, but the news of this morning along with the interview from the police and now Lance pacing around their room pushed him to his limits. _Cooking will relax me, though._

He made about twenty-five cookies, all the while dancing along to his music. Lance didn't even come to remind him of homework or anything else, so Hunk just assumed he was still pacing the room. Once he was done with all his cookies, he realized he didn't want to get back in there just yet, so he decided to pay a visit to someone who would probably desperately need it.

"Hey, Hunk. Are those for me?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah, I made a lot of them and I figured you could use some sweets. And some company, if you want." Hunk smiled as wide as he could.

"What kind of cookie?" Shiro asked, dubious about their content.

"Your favorite, with nuts." Hunk brought the plastic box in which the biscuits were resting closer to Shiro's nose, hoping the smell would convince him. Shiro smiled.

"You're the sole reason I need to go to the gym more than anyone on the team." Shiro said, motioning for Hunk to come in.

"Even though we all say you don't need to." Hunk reached the couch and settled the cookies on the end table. Grabbing one, he looked up to Shiro as the older man sat down next to him.

"If I did what any of you told me to, I would probably be fired from this position and lose my place in the football team." Shiro joked as he grabbed a cookie as well, closing his eyes as he took his first bite. "Holy fuck, I don't know what you put in there, but these are the best ones yet." Shiro devoured his cookie and fished for another one.

"Well I'm glad you like them, you can keep them. I was mostly cooking because Lance is into one of his obsessive modes again." Hunk sighed, falling down on the back of the couch.

"Keith?" asked Shiro in between two mouthfuls. Hunk nodded, his eyes closed as he rested his head on the couch. "What's he gotten into his little noggin this time?" Hunk was about to answer that Lance thought Keith was somehow involved in Allura's death, but realized just in time he better not bring that up in front of Shiro right now.

"I don't know, he's just pacing in our room, murmuring his name. If he didn't hate him so much, you'd think he was in love." Hunk chuckled at the idea. Shiro smiled along, eating his third cookie and closing the box.

"Give him time, he'll come down eventually. Either that or he'll confront Keith about it; and if that happens I really hope they find a mature way to solve their fight this time." Shiro sighed. Hunk remembered their last fight like it was yesterday, and that's because it was. Lance had decided that Keith was taking too long in the shower on purpose so he had locked him inside the bathroom. How he had done it, Hunk had no idea, but Keith was stuck in there for more than an hour before someone else on their floor reported the problem to Shiro. Lance had been given his second strike and had to apologize to Keith. Another fight had almost broken then, but thankfully Shiro had been there and the two boys didn't beat each other to death.

"I don't know if we can trust Lance with being mature." Hunk replied to Shiro. The silence between them settled into an almost cozy coat, but it seemed uneasy on Shiro's end, as if he were burning to say something. After almost a whole minute, he let it out, in nothing more than a whisper.

"She was murdered, you know?" It only took Hunk a second to realize who he was talking about and sit up straighter than he had in most of his life. Shiro was staring into the window behind him, which had a view of a park.

"Dude, you should take a break, think of something else." Hunk brought his arm up hesitantly to his friend's shoulder. "It hasn't even been twenty four hours."

"That's why I have to talk about it now. I don't think the full weight of what happened has hit me yet. It all feel so surreal, like I'm in a dream." Shiro sighed.

"I lost my grandmother last year, I know what you mean. When my mom first told me, I thought it was a joke. I just nodded and went on with my life. But at her funeral, it hit me, and it hit me hard. I thought I was ready, she had been sick for many years before, but I wasn't." Hunk held back his tears at the thought of his grandmother. _She was going to die either way, but fuck did it hurt!_

"I'm sorry about your grandmother, I feel like I should have done something."

"There wasn't much you could have done. All I needed was for my friends to be there for me, and you were, even if you didn't know it was important at the time." Hunk snorted, "And Lance was behaving like such a mother, I swear to you. He was making me tea and making sure I was tucked in at night and eating every meal and everything. He was the best. That's what helped me through it. He didn't mention it much, he just forced me to move on."

"Lance can be very sweet if he wants to be."

"Yeah." Hunk replied, pensively. "Just because… what happened… well happened, it doesn't mean you can't move on. That's what I learned last year, and I hope you will be able to apply it to your situation."

"I think I can try that. Thanks Hunk." Both continued to stare into empty space, Hunk keeping his hand on Shiro's shoulder. He had always felt Shiro to be such a comforting presence, helping them figure things out in their lives; and becoming friends with him had only reinforced that bond. And so it was that much more heart wrenching to see him broken like this, such a small spirit in a big body. "You want some water?" Shiro asked.

"Yeah, thanks." Shiro got up and grabbed two cups from his kitchen. "Must be nice to have your own kitchen." Hunk said.

"I don't use it much. Allura sai…Allura used to say I didn't even need all the pots and pans that my mom bought for me, but I use them sometimes. She would also try to make diner for me whenever there were too many empty ramen packages in the trash. It made her mad." Shiro chuckled, a small smile crossing his lips.

"Remember that one time Keith tried to make ramen and it triggered the fire alarm?" Hunk said, trying to change the subject. Shiro looked up to him, and chuckled for real this time.

"He looked so clueless about how it had actually happened. I don't think I ever saw him in the kitchen after that."

"No, he hasn't touched a stove ever since." Hunk laughed at the memory, glad he didn't have to suffer Keith's incompetence at cooking first hand.

"That's good. I don't want to have to explain this again to the fire department." Shiro brought two glasses of water to the end table, keeping one in his hand and drinking from it. The silence that settled between them this time was nicer and more comfortable, the kind you can only have with real friends. Hunk drank his cup of water and glanced at his watch. It was getting late and he should probably shower at some point tonight.

"I got to get going, early classes tomorrow and all that." He rose up from the couch, setting his empty glass on the table. "You keep the cookies, and take it easy, man."

"Thanks, I will." Shiro answered, but Hunk could tell he was already tuning out the world. He hesitated between staying for his friend and actually getting things done, and finally made up his mind in favor of school. Shiro would probably want to be alone for some time as well, and if he needed anyone, he could always call for him. _That's a lie, you know he would probably not seek out help if he needed any. You didn't when Nana died._

Hunk reluctantly made it out of Shiro's room and closed the door behind him. The sun outside was setting and he wondered what Lance was doing in their room. He grabbed his cooking utensils that he had left in the kitchen and came back to his room. Lance was now sitting on his bed, his computer on his lap. He looked deeply focused but as soon as Hunk set down his equipment he spoke up.

"Hunk, we need to talk."

"Okay, dude, what's up?"

"You know how Keith kept saying he was sorry this morning? He's been in his room all day, and I saw him leave thirty minutes ago. He hasn't come back yet." Lance went over to window and scanned the horizon. Obviously not seeing any signs of Keith, he retreated to his bed.

"Maybe he came back when you weren't looking. And why are you so focused on him? He's just as traumatized as us that Allura is…no more." Hunk sat on his bed opposing Lance.

"I would have heard the elevator if he came back. Besides, no one says 'I'm sorry' this much, especially when he didn't know Allura that well. I tell you, there's something funny going on with this guy, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it."

"Well you do that, I'm going to go shower. Have fun playing detective, Lance!" Hunk grabbed his towel and shower basket and left the room.

"I'm going to do just that." Lance said with a grin.


	4. Lance 2

"Let's recap. I spent the last week following Keith around as much as physically possible." Lance said, his back to the power point presentation he had prepared. "Here's all we know." He moved to the first slide which showed Keith eating breakfast in the cafeteria. "Here we have our suspect eating at almost the same time every day. Now that isn't suspicious in and of itself, but I've never seen Keith eat alone that much. Usually Nathan is with him most days."

Lance knew he was stretching his conclusion, but he also had a gut feeling he was right about this. Following Keith around hadn't been hard, even if he got caught most of the time. He remembered earlier this morning when Keith had been eating across the hall from him, as far as physically possible, and Lance had taken the picture that was now on his slides. Hunk had been talking about that midterm that was coming up, but all Lance could focus on was Keith's extremely annoyed face. He had left only five minutes after arriving, eating his breakfast in record time.

He had followed him around on campus as well. This wasn't too hard because they had a bunch of classes in common. So basically Lance had tried to sit in a part of the room where he could observe Keith, which usually meant sitting in the back. Unfortunately, Keith had figured out his technique pretty early on and had sat on the farthest row for the rest of the week, making it impossible for Lance to see anything he was doing on his computer. He still turned his head towards him as much as he could, but Keith was pretty emotionless during class. _Man was he boring to look at. If it weren't for his acceptable looks, I would have to clean my eyes with soap every night with how much I look at him._

All he could notice was that he seemed to take less notes than usual. Maybe that was just because Lance hadn't looked at Keith in class before, but when he did have a full view of his computer he realized his notes were rather sparse; at least compared to Lance's. He had then tried to follow him out of class, but Keith spent most of his time in his room or at the library, none of which brought anything interesting. Lance had tried to coax Nathan into helping his investigations, but he was met with a blunt refusal.

"Look, I know he looks a bit out of it, but that's just the shock, right? I don't see how it could be anything else. Besides, if he hasn't told me, then it's either not important, or he's just not ready to let it out." Nathan was usually a nice guy, and it didn't help Lance that he had had a slight crush on him the previous year. _I mean, don't do to the gym everyday to swim and expect me not to have a crush._ Nathan was slightly taller than Lance, Chinese from his mom's side and European from his dad's. Those genetics resulted in black hair and eyes, a defined jaw, and a tan look. Swimming had made his body lean and he was quite strong, contrarily to what Lance had first thought when he had met him.

"Can't you just, like, try to question him a little? Just to get a reaction? After all, he likes you more than he likes me, so I think he would open up to you more than he would to me." Lance said.

"He's my roommate, so I really don't want to upset him because then that'll fall back on me. You're on your own, mate!"

Hunk still thought he was nuts and Nathan had decided to not be of any help; so Lance had set out to capture as much as he could in photographs and illustrate Hunk his results on a power point presentation which he was now showing to his friend.

"Hunk, he hasn't said 'hi' to me all week! I even got a picture of him taking the stairs on purpose when we entered the building at the same time."

"He never says 'hi' to you, Lance. Can't you just get to the real evidence, you've been blabbing about for twenty minutes and I have stuff to do." Lance switched to the next slide which contained no pictures but instead a single word : shower.

"He hasn't complained about my singing in the shower. For a whole week. And I've been yelled at by pretty much everyone else."

"That's karma for you, but I do admit that Keith not publicly pointing out your immaturity and stupidity is surprising. Then again, he could just be having a tough week with classes or other stuff."

"What other stuff? It's common knowledge that Keith does his homework super early because he has no social life, and he's got no family that we know of so the problem can't come from there. Besides, he's always fought about my singing, even during finals; so your argument doesn't stand. There's definitely something fishy." _And I'm going to prove it._

"What it looks like so far is that he's just been having a tough time. He's probably just really shocked by what happened to Allura. He was the one who found her, you remember? Wouldn't you be a little knocked off your feet if you saw a dead body before breakfast? I know I would." Hunk brought his hand to his mouth, his face growing suddenly pale. "I might be sick right now just thinking about it."

"It's been a week, Hunk. Even the most sensitive guy in the world would have grown out of it by now. Plus, it's not like Keith is . I don't think I've ever seen him express anything other than anger, disgust and contempt."

"Maybe to your face, but I've seen him smile a couple of times. I still don't get why you two just can't get along."

"I tried being nice, but he just laughed at me. And I don't trust a guy who wears a mullet, I mean, what kind of hairstyle is this? We are in the 21st century, it's time he moved on with everyone else." Lance didn't actually hate Keith, he just didn't believe they should be friends. In reality, he enjoyed his quarrels and competitions with the other boy, but he would die before he admitted it. Besides, their fights never got too out of hand and there was always Hunk or Shiro to break them up if need be.

"Whatever man, I think you're just wasting your breath here. You don't actually have any substantial evidence. And are you sure you know what a mullet is? Because Keith doesn't have one, his hair is just long."

"Keith's hairstyle is not really important right now, Hunk. And I will get evidence in phase two. Which starts now?"

"What was phase one? Because so far, you didn't seem to have much of a plan." Lance punched Hunk playfully in the shoulder, though he was slightly annoyed at his friend. He could always count on Hunk to bring him down to Earth when he became too obsessed with anything, but he was certain this time Keith was hiding something.

"Phase one was to convince you that I was right, and although you keep repeating to me that it failed, I will move on to phase two."

"Pray tell, Mr. Holmes, what your plan entails."

"We find a way to get Keith to confess."

"I'm sorry 'we'? I didn't agree to this."

"Yes you did, the moment you started listening to me. Now, I need your help coming up with a plan because so far I've got nothing." Lance continued to talk over Hunk's protests. "I thought I could offer to pay for his meals for a week, or maybe more. Or I could do a favor for him, but I've got my limits on this one. Like, if he asks me to stop singing in the shower for the rest of the term, I'm going to have to refuse. I may want to know what he is hiding, but not that desperately."

"You could always do his laundry for a month." Hunk proposed.

"Hell no! I don't want to look into what kind of underwear he has. They're probably all black anyway, I don't need to emotionally scar myself for this."

"Whatever floats your boat. You seem like you've got your ideas pretty figured out. I tried to help, you don't like my answer, and I have now fulfilled my duty. Please let me be."

Lance recognized Hunk when he started to use that tone and that meant he had had enough of Lance's shit for the day. He closed the power point on his computer and set out to find Keith. He had barely knocked on his door that it swung open and Nathan came out.

"Lance! What a peculiar sight, seeing you here! You're still not convinced Keith is hiding something, are you?"

"Are you denying he's acting weird? Has he told you?"

"Not weirder than usual, and no he hasn't talked much lately. Just give up man, this level of obsession isn't healthy." Lance discarded Nathan's advice and said:

"Is he in there? Can I talk to him?"

"No, he's gone out, and you can do whatever you want, I'm not his mother. But I wouldn't bother him if I were you; I don't think anyone on the floor wants the two of you to get into a fight so close to midterms. It's kind of a pain in the ass to have to study with you two yelling at three in the fucking morning." Nathan closed his door behind him and locked it. "See you around." He waved Lance goodbye and went to the elevator.

 _So no one else thinks this is suspicious? Am I just nuts or extra-perceptive? Probably the second one._ Lance returned to his room, only to find Hunk deeply focused on math exercises. _Better not bother him now, he'll be mad as hell._ He checked his agenda and figured he still had a few more days of procrastination before he would need to really start studying. He fired up his computer and opened Facebook. Keith wasn't online, but that didn't come as surprise to him. ( _And yes they were Facebook friends, but in this day and age, who isn't ?)_ He opened a message window and typed out the following:

"I know you're hiding something, and I intend to find out. How about you tell me what's on your mind and I pay for your meals for a week?"

He hit send and waited for the answer. He opened another window and tried to do some practice questions for his biology class, but his mind was elsewhere. After twenty minutes of trying to learn the composition of a cell, he heard the familiar 'ding' that accompanied incoming messages. It was from Keith.

"I have no idea what you're talking about?"

"Maybe for two weeks then? Need a little more incentive?" Lance replied.

"Is that why you've been following me around? You think I have something to hide?"

"I don't hear a no…"

"No."

"No you don't have something to hide or no you won't accept two weeks of free meals in exchange for it."

"No to both, dipshit."

"No need to get violent, I'm just here to bargain."

"Fine, you want to bargain? How about you leave me alone in exchange for nothing."

"Ouch. Now I'm definitely sure you're hiding something. You've never tried this much to talk to me on social media."

Keith didn't reply, and a few seconds later he logged off Facebook. _So much for trying to get information out of him._ However, Lance wasn't discouraged. If Keith was on Facebook, it probably meant that he was back in his room. Lance rushed out to knock on Keith's door. A clear "fuck off!" was shouted from the other side.

"Come on, you can't ignore me forever."

"No, but you won't hold forever." Replied Keith's muffled voice. Lance hesitated to open the door and enter his room anyway, but he wasn't sure how Keith would react.

"At least let me in so we can have an adult conversation about this."

"You're about as much of an adult as a peach is a pear, Lance."

"Yeah well, you're about as stubborn as …. As…" Lance kicked the door, and received a loud "Can you just shut up!" from the room next to Keith's. _Great comeback, Lance._ "Just let me in, your neighbor's getting angry."

"If I open the door, you'll let me be?"

"Yes." Lance was prepared to do anything to not get his third strike with Shiro. They were friends, but that didn't mean much if your behavior annoyed everybody on the floor. The door to Keith's room swung open, and Lance didn't even wait for Keith to say anything to rush in and close it behind him.

"I didn't say you could come in!" Keith sat back on his bed, arms crossed over his chest. _That was a lot easier than I thought._

"Yeah, but you don't seem too eager to kick me out either, so I'm going to take that as an invitation." Lance settled on Nathan's bed, scrutinizing Keith. "So, how about that secret?"

"What makes you think I have a secret anyway? I know you love to find any interesting tidbits about me and use them to humiliate me, but I don't see how this fits your regular pattern." Lance was a bit taken aback by Keith's calm tone.

"You've been acting strange all week, starting with Sunday. Everyone wants to make me believe you're just traumatized, but weirdly I don't see that happening."

"I'm glad to see you've got such a high esteem of my emotional maturity." Keith said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"I'm going to ignore your last comment. But come on, two weeks of free food!"

"I already said no. I don't have a secret, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you out of all people. Especially just for two mediocre weeks of free meals." Lance knew he should have probably ended the conversation now and left, but he was desperate.

"How about free laundry?" _I can't believe I've sunk so low._

"And let you see my underwear? Are you nuts?"

"No, I'm Lance. Besides, I'm pretty sure they're all black." Keith suddenly rose from his bed and opened the door.

"Get out now, before I beat your fucking ass to the ground." Lance didn't want to argue so he got up and left, stepping out just in time for Keith to slam the door behind him. _Well, that went terrible wrong._

He had nothing better to do now than actually try to get some work done, which proved harder than he had hoped for. His following attempts the next day were met with about the same responses from Keith. He thought he had reached the end of his wits, when he had one last idea on Tuesday night.

He had been singing in the shower when another person entered the shower area. Looking beneath his curtain, Lance recognized Keith's flip flops. He began to sing as loud and as obnoxiously as he could. After one full song and no response from the other, he asked:

"Why don't you complain about my singing anymore, Keith? Do you like it?" No answer came from the shower next to his, so he continued "I could go on for forever." Still no answer. "If you don't tell me your secret, I'll sing Lady Gaga all week." Finally an answer came:

"Do your worst."

Lance finished his shower soon after that, not even in the mood for a single tune. He reached his room with a single towel across his waist and found Hunk watching TV on his bed.

"Hunk, we have a code red!"

"What?" Hunk asked, removing his headphones.

"A code red! Keith didn't ask me to stop singing in the shower. He even said 'do your worst' when I threatened him with Lady Gaga! You have to admit he's up to something now."

"I won't admit anything, but this gives me an idea, so you can finally leave me alone with all this nonsense."

"Cut that nonsense crap and spit it out!"

"I don't think Keith said to do your worst because he didn't care. I think it was more of a challenge."

"Does it really matter? He's clearly guilty of something."

"Hear me out. What do you and Keith have in common?"

"We fight a lot? We complain about each other? We had a crush on the same guy last year? What are you getting at?"

"No, above all that, what is it that you and Keith can agree on?"

"Nothing. We can't even agree on who's the best at anyth…. Hunk, you big gassy genius! A competition!"

"If there's one thing you two can agree on, is that you love to one up the other. All the time. So I think the best way to get information out of Keith, if there is any to begin with, is to challenge him to a competition. Loser has to reveal his secret."

"But I don't have secrets to reveal!"

"Lance, did you not just hear me? If the plan works fine, Keith should be the one to confess."

"Ok then we have to pick something I know I can kick his ass at."

"Or not. Because if I were Keith and I had something to hide, I wouldn't risk it all on a game I knew I would probably lose on."

"Then how can I beat him at something he's best at? What is he even best at?"

"Don't you remember when he kicked your ass at Super Smash Bros the other week? You were pathetic, by the way."

"Hey! But I guess you're right. Also, there's no way I'm going to get good enough to be 100% sure I'll beat him."

"You might not be that sure you're going to win, but I can teach you how to get to a decent level where you at least stand a good enough chance. After all, I am the undefeated champion of the building." Lance rushed to hug his friend, forgetting for a moment that he was only clothed in a single towel that was slowly starting to slip from his waist. "Lance, can you get dressed before you thank me?"

"Sure thing, buddy. That's a genius idea, though!"

"Well I'm glad to say that at least one of us isn't completely stupid."

"Hey!" Lance said, changing into his pajamas as soon as Hunk had turned his back. "But you're right, I would have never come up with such an idea on my own. Now all there's left to do is convince mullet boy to do it."

"That might prove harder to do now since you've been annoying him for the past week and a half. And you have to stop saying he has a mullet."

"It's not my fault he's an unbreakable safe of emotions!" replied Lance, ignoring Hunk's comment.

"Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night." Hunk put his headphones back on, signaling the conversation was over. "Training starts tomorrow and ends that day. I need to study after that."


	5. Shiro

All Shiro would ever remember from that Sunday morning wasn't the way everyone was pushing him for answers, nor was it when the police had asked him to identify the body. The one thing he would take away and carry for the rest of his life was his reaction, his emptiness. Once second he had been filled with concern as well as pride, about to fulfill his duties and work with the police towards a common goal; the next he was sitting on the steps outside the dorms, holding his head in his hands, the last words the policeman had said ringing through his head. Everything after that was a blur, all except the throbbing in his chest.

He knew he had identified the body, his rationality told him as much. He remembered his friends were present, but whatever was said between them appeared like a distant memory. He knew Hunk had come bearing cookies, and some part of him surfaced for a moment but was gone the instant Hunk left. It felt like being in a cloud, floating around in a different universe, parallel to the world around him. Surrounded not in a dull pain, but in a permanent numbness. Everything that came through the opaque layer had been softened, touching him like a feather.

But that night, it all came crashing down. Shiro had somehow gotten to his room after being interviewed by the police, and reality finally revealed itself to him, raw and poignant. The cloud lifted, and the first thing he did was punch the wall of his bedroom. He screamed and shouted, yelled until his voice couldn't take it anymore. He hit his wall until a hole appeared, and even then he still punched into it. He only stopped when his hand jammed itself at a bent nail and came out with a streak of red.

Only then did he notice the tears on his face, blurring his vision once more. His body collapsed on the bed, numb again from the pain in his hand. He had no idea how long he stayed there, all he was aware of was the pain slowly making itself known. It grew until it was too much for his senses and he forced his eyelids open. Brown coagulated blood covered the lower half of his hand and had dyed a large portion of his shirt. _Shit, now I've got to clean that too._

His instincts kicking in, Shiro dragged his feet to the kitchen and put his lacerated hand under running water to wash the wound. When the excess blood had cleared away, he turned to the bathroom and reached for his first aid kit. Injuries were familiar to him, though the ones he usually suffered from were closer to bruises than open cuts. He grabbed disinfectant and sprayed it over his numb hand. He reached for the gauze in the first aid kit, and wrapped it around his hand. Sitting on the toilet seat, he released a barely audible sigh.

He figured he had to do something, go to the gym or do homework; anything. Inactivity would not help and he did not think punching the wall again would be such a great idea. _I'm going to have to get that repaired soon._ His thoughts whirled around his mind, silencing each other so none of them was loud enough to be heard. Shiro didn't want to stay immobile for another hour, so he stood and went into his bedroom. The gaping hole in the wall stared at him accusingly but he willed himself to ignore it. Focusing his thoughts on what he could actually do, he opened his laptop and set out to do some practice exercises.

He quickly found that doing something that required his entire attention was the best way to not think about the recent events. He was able to go through several pages of exercises he had planned to do during the whole week and he only stopped when the hunger in his gut was no longer a dull pain. He grudgingly went to the cafeteria to get some sustenance, although the mere thought of food sent bile into his stomach.

He was no longer able to focus after that, his body excited with nutrients and he found himself doing the last thing he should have done: drinking. The thought had started emerging when the accumulated pain of his injured body and mind began to be too much; and the idea had never really left him. Deep down he knew it would only make things worse, but studying was out of the question in the agitated state he was in.

He found Keith at the store and while part of him hated the boy for being there, the other was relieved he would not need to control his impulsive behavior alone this time around. They went back to the dorms and drank, but even the mindless TV could not take Shiro's thoughts from scrambling around his brain. Drinking didn't help, as he had guessed, and he only found himself locked into his own skin, unable to do anything but build a damn around his memories and feelings. Somehow, Keith seemed to be aware of his distance, but his friend also knew to leave him alone. He did not sleep that night, just stayed in his bed, occupying his hands with anything he could find. He solved a Rubik's cube three times, played solitaire; he even tried to masturbate, but his mind wasn't in the mood. He rose up with the sun and went to run on the football field.

Shiro did not think, he did not let his guard down for more than a minute during the following week. He woke up after a minimal amount of sleep and went to the gym. He worked himself to the bone, body and mind, coming home exhausted and in desperate need of a shower. Wake up, work out, go to class, study, repeat. His meals were sparse and he fed himself out of necessity more than a true desire for nurture. Every minute of every day was occupied with something, because it was when he remained inactive that Shiro's conscience would rise up, conjuring mental memories of Allura, of her smiles, her laugh, the way she ran her fingers through his hair, that annoyed look she made when he was too righteous, the way her deep blue eyes sparkled …..

Then Shiro would do the best thing he could do: work. Work until he had nothing left to do, and then go over the same things again. Running miles and miles alone on the cold washed up red ellipses of the football field. Part of him knew he should be dealing with this situation in a healthier way, but the other part was sad he still hadn't killed himself from overexertion yet. Sometimes, it would happen that his conscience won and he found himself bathing in tears, his mind presenting memory upon memory of happiness he knew was no longer available to him.

To any of his friends, he just appeared aloof, engrossed in his routine; it was midterm season after all. He would occasionally cross someone who would recognize him and offer their condolences, and every time he responded with a polite smile and a 'thank you'. His friends tried to reach out to him, but he turned them down, claiming he was busy. It felt like living in a black and white version of the world where the only things in color were him and the memories of Allura, always pressing against his mental damn, whirling and slamming until they overflowed.

The week came and went, and soon it was Saturday again. Shiro had woken up around 6 a.m. and gone to the field to run. It was pouring and the rain soaked his clothes, his skin, and it would have gone right through his heart as well, had Shiro not already been convinced his most vital organ had been frozen in pain a week ago. The terrain converted to mud and Shiro was forced to retreat back inside. It was 9 a.m. and he already knew this would be the worst day yet. He climbed the stairs instead of standing in the elevator. His gaze was at his feet, his mind already racing through the homework and studying he could do to get through the day.

"Eyes up here, Shiro!" a female voice chirped from right in front of him. He raised his head, only to get dizzy from the sudden motion. _Maybe skipping breakfast wasn't the best idea._ He steadied his footing and finally looked up on who was standing in front of him. A small Latina woman, brown hair cut to a messy bob, her pink cardigan and blue jeans fitting her plump body like a glove, was looking at him intensively with her bright chocolate eyes. Alongside her were two much taller men, as different from the other as they could possibly be. Where one was black the other looked like he needed SPF 1000 in the summer in order to survive; a buzz cut of black hair contrasted to a longer cut of blond curls, one side with dark brown eyes the other with pine green eyes; but the difference seemed to end there. They were both well built, their shoulders broad and their muscles defined, wearing jeans and a sports jacket of the same team.

"Hello, Earth to Shiro? Are you responding? Do you hear my voice?" Camila said, now that Shiro recognized her. The two bodyguards surrounding her were his two other friends, Chris and Ryan, in an eternal bickering as to whether Ryan recognized his white privilege.

"I can hear you fine." Shiro answered.

"Oh good, because I was worried for a second there." Camila turned around to the other two, waving her arms as if asking a question. "Can you imagine what that must be like, being worried?" She faced back around to Shiro. "In case you haven't gotten my little act, we have been worried sick about you this past week; and I swear to God above, if it weren't for midterms and us trying to let you breathe, I would have been here a week ago." Shiro felt bad, even though part of him wished his friends would just let him be. But somehow he knew they needed reassurance and spending time with friends was one way to occupy one's time, wasn't it?

"I'm sorry guys. This week's been pretty hard for me. I shouldn't have pushed you away though."

"It's okay man, you tried to go at it alone. Now we're here to tell you we support you." Chris said.

"And we love you, because we're friends." Ryan added. Shiro felt his face spread into a smile, some weight taken off his shoulders. He had forgotten how nice it could be to have his friends around. The others smiled back.

"So are we just going to stand there, or are you actually going to let us into your room? Some people from your floor have already seen us and sent us weird looks." Camila said.

"Yeah, sorry." Shiro grabbed his keys and opened the door. His friends followed him in and sat on his couch liked they lived there, which he sometimes liked to think they did. Camila always sat between Ryan and Chris, just so she could tease the both of them at intervals. Neither of them ever minded and they liked it this way. Shiro sat down in his armchair opposite to the couch. All three of his friends had comforting faces and sincere smiles on their lips, and he suddenly felt very bad for having ignored them all week. He knew there wasn't much they could have done because this was a very busy time of year, but he ought to still have tried.

"So, I'll have some of your chamomile and I'm pretty sure Camila and Chris will take chai." Ryan said. It took Shiro a second too long to understand what he meant by that and he unfortunately received concerned looks from all of them before he stood up and headed for the kitchen part of the living room.

"So, you want to talk about it, or you want to pretend it didn't happen and have fun?" Chris asked, voice full of compassion. Shiro knew if there was someone on this Earth he had to confess his feelings to, it would be Chris. This guy gave off such comforting vibe, it was hard to not give in. He kept on saying it was due to his three sisters, that they made him like a huge teddy bear, but Shiro could tell it was also a big part of his personality. Ryan was more about cracking jokes as well as spending unnecessary time at the gym. Camila had met the three of them while they were practicing for their first match of the year, two years ago, and had interviewed them for her newspaper. They had kept in touch after that and quickly became very good friends.

"I think I'd prefer to keep my mind off that topic for now, but I know I'll have to talk about it sooner rather than later."

"Hey, you can trust us. I mean, none of us are studying psychology and we have no experience with soul crushing events, but you can totally count on us." Ryan said, Camila sending her elbow into his side.

"Thanks. I'm sorry, guys."

"Will you stop drowning yourself in apologies? What's done is done, and frankly we don't hate you. We're just a little sad you didn't come to us when you needed help. Then again, who would have expected anything else from Takashi Shirogane, self-made man? We're not here to judge, we're here to help. At least that's what I'm here for, and I convinced these two morons I would help them with English Lit if they accompanied me." The other two nodded in agreement, and Shiro felt his face light up once more. It felt nice to be able to smile again, after spending a week wearing frowns and unworthy grins.

"Thanks. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You'd work yourself to death apparently, if the last week is to prove anything." Ryan said.

Shiro finally finished making all their teas, and brought them back to the end table between the couch and the armchair. They all stared at each other, silence settling between them like a fog, twisting its way along their gazes. Eventually, Shiro spoke first:

"So, how did midterms go?" A common groan of discontent as well as relief at the simple topic replied to his question, and a heated conversation about whether they had flunked classes or not ensued. Shiro felt as if the past week had never happened. At least he would if the tiny voice at the back of his mind would shut up and let him live for once. It was still the simplest and most honest fun conversation he had had in a long time and he was thankful for it.

The conversation snaked to professors, some of which they hated and others they adored. They talked their way into a good portion of the morning and eventually Ryan's stomach produced a large growl. They decided that it was time for lunch and headed downtown to grab some food. The rest of the day went so well Shiro almost forgot what it had felt like to be alone, until the dread of the moment they would have to separate made the end of their meeting bitter sweet. He did smile more than he had recently, and he could even call a few of those genuine smiles. He knew his friends could tell, the way a mother can tell if you're lying.

They eventually separated, but some weigh had been lifted of Shiro's shoulders and he felt the burden of Allura's death being lighter on his chest. Part of him chastised him for feeling this way, but the other was glad he was finally a bit liberated. He got back to the dorms on foot, taking the time to admire the warm tones of the falling leaves. Autumn had always been his favorite season, and he decided today that no unfortunate event would ever take that away from him.

He got up to his room and took his phone out of his coat pocket. There were five notifications: an update for Temple Run ( _you never know when you might be bored enough to play_ ), a message from Camila asking him to text her when he got back home, and three missed calls from the police. Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, Shiro called them back and waited for someone to answer.

"Hello."

"Hi. This is Takashi Shirogane. You called me earlier today."

"Yeah, we tried your cell three times. Glad we could finally reach you. Can you come to the station on Monday? We need to ask you more questions." Shiro felt the weight come back, heavier than ever before, crushing his shoulders and anchoring his feet into the ground. His breath lodged itself in his throat and he had to wait until air could flow again to answer the policeman.

"Um, yeah, I can make it. At what time do I need to be there?"

"Anytime between 9 and 5. Please don't forget. Have a good day, sir."

"You too." The connection ended. _What more could the police possibly want to know?_


	6. Lance 3

"Come on, man! It's already noon and you told me you would teach me everything you know so I can crush Keith's ass!" Lance was tugging at Hunk's sleeve while the bigger man was trying to focus on his homework. He eventually gave up and turned to face his friend.

"I'm only doing this because you're annoying and behaving like a five year old." He turned the TV on as well as the console and handed a remote to Lance as he took the other one. "Ok, so your main goal obviously is to not lose."

"Yeah, I get that Hunk, I'm not that stupid." Lance chose his character as Hunk pulled up the battle screen and they started playing. Lance lost within a minute and groaned loudly. This wasn't fair, Hunk was just too good at this game and all his advice either seemed obvious or impossible to do.

They played until the sun started to set and Hunk screamed that he had so much work left to do. Lance continued to play by himself, but the computer simulation was way easier to battle against than his friend. At times he would crush his opponent with only a few moves, at others he would have to defend himself ceaselessly against the blows.

Hunk eventually stood up from his chair and said:

"I don't know about you, but I'm starving." Lance glanced at the time on his watch and jumped in surprise, while his character died on screen.

"Holy shit! It's already 6:30? I actually have work to do today! And I'm nowhere good enough to kick mullet boy's ass."

"Yeah, it's late and I'm hungry. You can complain about Keith all you want on our way to the cafeteria." Lance shut the TV and the console off, and the two boys went down to the food hall. Lance was looking at an appetizing dish of pasta when he spotted long raven hair across the food court. He rushed to Keith and the man turned around at the last minute to face him. Violet eyes looked at Lance, and were soon followed by the usual scowl that accompanied them.

"What do you want?"

"For you to finally admit you're hiding something."

"Are you seriously still stuck on that? Are you fucking kidding me?" Keith rolled his eyes and started to walk away.

"Don't you fucking leave this conversation. I actually have a good offer for once." A smug grin grew on Lance's face. "You can't say no to this."

"You know I don't have anything to hide, so why are still pushing me? Get a fucking life." Ignoring Keith's remark, Lance continued.

"You, me, Tuesday, Super Smash Bros. I challenge you to beat me 2 to 1, and if you do I will leave you alone with your soul crushing secret. But if I win, you tell me that thing you're hiding." Keith rolled his eyes again, but he had stopped moving in his tracks. Lance knew he had at least caught the boy's interest because he never looked at him this long. Come to think of it, it was making him slightly uncomfortable because this was one of the few times he could really take in Keith's features. And goddamn if the son of a bitch wasn't attractive. Lance shook his thoughts away mentally, damming his stupid sexuality, and stared down at Keith, waiting for him to flinch. The black haired man crossed his arms over his chest and finally looked away, breaking their not so subtle staring contest.

"I would never turn away from a chance to show how terrible you are at that game. Don't you remember the last time we played? I crushed you faster than even Hunk did. You kept yelling you wanted a rematch, and I swear you were crying into Hunk's shoulder at one point." Lance barely stopped himself from wiping that stupid scowl off Keith's face. _Oh, it's on now, mullet boy is going to regret ever coming into existence!_ Lance closed his eyes and tried to breathe calmly before replying.

"I wasn't crying, besides, I'm not the one who fights with a giant pink rubber ball."

"I think you're forgetting that the pink rubber ball kicked your ass, so don't insult Kirby."

"So, want a rematch?" Lance's smug grin was back on his face and he could tell Keith was holding himself from rolling his eyes out of his skull.

"If it'll make you shut up for once and for all, fine."

"Prepare a good explanation for your secret and say goodbye to that nice butt of yours because it's going to get kicked!" Lance realized a second too late his poor choice of words and red filled his face. He hoped that Keith hadn't noticed his flushing features and tried to recover from his mistake by adding "Not that your butt is nice, but at least savor the last moments of it looking comfortable." Lance felt his whole body heat up and he mentally face palmed himself as hard as he could. _Why did I try to save that, I only made it worse!_ Not trusting his body to behave casually if he snuck a look at Keith, he carried his gaze as low as he could and added a small "Forget it, just prepare to tell me your biggest secret, mullet boy."

Lance walked away as confidently as he could, not daring to look back at Keith just yet. He managed a slight glare as he was finally joining Hunk at a table and found Keith staring blankly at his plate, his food untouched. He didn't know what to think of it, but at least Keith wasn't making fun of him for slipping up. It's not his fault Keith happened to be the proud owner of the rarest body part in the male body.

Hunk wolfed down his plate, barely registering Lance's silence. When he was done, Lance had only eaten half his plate and still hadn't uttered a word.

"Are you okay, buddy? Did Keith actually not take the bait?"

"No he did, and I'm going to crush him on Tuesday!" Lance's grin was back and he tried his best to pretend the end of his conversation with Keith hadn't happened. After all, it only made him hate Keith more. _How dare he be attractive? Assholes can't be attractive, it's a rule._ Feeling better about himself, Lance ate the rest of his plate, talking at the same time about how stupid Keith was and how he was going to kick his ass( _and finally put it back to the ugly way it was meant to be_ ).

The next days went by as uneventfully as possible. Lance managed to find some more time to practice his gaming skills, Hunk joining him for a few games when he was too frustrated with his physics exercises. By Tuesday night, Lance had definitely improved and he even managed to beat Hunk in one moment of inattention of the other's part in their last practice that night. Around 8pm, Keith knocked on their door and Lance rushed to open it, smug grin and finger guns ready to fire.

"So you're ready to get your ass handed to you?" Lance said, noticing a slight pink coming to Keith's cheeks. _Maybe it's just the lighting._

"I'm thinking it'll be the other way around, but you can dream." Keith followed Lance inside the room. Hunk was trying to study with headphones covering his ears, but Lance gave him only a few minutes before he took them off and joined them. _He won't be able to resist the stakes of this game._ Hunk acknowledged Keith rapidly before turning back to lengthy equations that made Lance's brain shut down at the sight of them.

"It's on, mullet." Keith rolled his eyes and sat down next to Lance in front of the TV. The brunet handed him his remote, but withdrew it once he saw Keith's gloved hands.

"You can't wear those! It's cheating! Plus they look ridiculous, and I won't allow them in my room."

"I don't see how it's cheating. And they're not ridiculous, I need them for my bike." Lance felt his heart skip a beat and his face flush with anger. _That proves he's a grade A asshole! What a jerk._

"You can hold the remote better with them, and besides, you're not on your stupid bike now, so give them up." He held strongly onto the remote. Keith rolled his eyes again( _I bet one day his eyes just roll on to infinity and never stop. He'll really look like an idiot then!_ ) and took off his fingerless gloves before receiving the remote from Lance.

Lance set up the game and groaned when Keith chose Kirby again. They started to battle, but Lance quickly lost due to a movement error on his part.

"Looks like this is going to be even easier than last time." Keith said with a smirk. Lance started the next round and held his ground this time. Hunk had stopped working and was now watching them from behind Lance. This round lasted longer than the first one, and to Hunk and Keith's surprise, Lance won with a bold move.

"You better watch your back, I've got you now, Mullet." Lance didn't even bother to look sideways to know that Keith was rolling his eyes at the nickname and prepared himself for the next round. _The final one._ He managed to avoid a deadly move from Keith and almost fell off the platform at some point, but he eventually managed to throw Keith off and he jumped in the air with a huge smile.

"I won! I won! You have to tell me your secret now! You stupid mullet!" He swayed his hips around, doing his trademark victory dance. Hunk was slow clapping in the background.

"I actually can't believe you did it. I'm so proud of you."

"You got lucky on that last one." Keith said, his scowl back on his face.

"You're just mad because you lost and now you have to hold your end of the bargain." Lance said, crouching down to Keith's level.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Hunk, can you believe this guy? We make a deal and now he won't tell me his secret."

"Keith, if I may say something, just tell Lance whatever it is that he wants to hear. I personally don't believe you have a ground breaking secret, but I agree you've been acting weird. Like 'not yelling at Lance in the shower' weird. And Lance did just beat you 2 to 1, so you should at least do it for the sake of the bargain."

Keith remained silent for at least a minute. Lance was starting to lose his patience and wanted to punch the truth out of the boy more and more, but he found the strength within himself to wait. Finally, Keith released a sigh, closed his eyes and brought his knees to his chest.

"You're right, I…. I've been holding something in. I didn't know how to go about telling it to…. To anyone, really. But since Lance is being a pain in the ass about it and…. And he did technically beat me fair and square, mostly; I guess…. I guess I owe it to you guys." Keith shut down again, his face pained. Lance took a seat next to him and waited for the boy to release the truth. Finally Keith just blurted it out, so fast Lance would have never caught had he not expected similar words.

"It's my fault. Allura's death. It's all my fault."


	7. Keith 2

Sometimes Keith would still get nightmares about the day his parents died. He had been too young at the time to remember their faces correctly or even how life used to be when they were still around. All he knew is that one day he was a happy child with a family, and the next he was one in a dozen other children sleeping in a huge grey building.

He didn't like to think back to those times however, and preferred to focus on the present and what he could make of it. After his parents' passing, he had tried to honor them by being the best he could possibly be. This meant getting good grades in school and joining several clubs and sports. Over time, his efforts became fruitless and he couldn't keep up with being the best at everything. He had tried to settle for just being good, but that didn't work out either. The bullying from others as well as his growing sense of helplessness had fed his anxiety and soon he had been doing as little as he could. His grades had dropped to an all time low and he had lost the most welcoming family he ever had, going back to sleep in bare rooms with other rejects.

Keith had eventually made it out of the system and had gotten into a good enough college. He had thought this would help make him a better person; a second chance to make his parents proud. But it had turned out just as badly as his previous attempts. Parties did not interest him, his classes were harder than ever before, and his love life was a vicious cycle of deception and cheating. Keith had closed in on himself and spiraled down into the darkness of his thoughts. He had made no friends in six months and for him there had been no light at the end of the tunnel.

Right then, at the second lowest point of his life, Shiro had come to him. Keith still didn't understand what made Shiro get involved in his life, but the older man had done so and Keith was grateful for it. It was even more than that. He had Shiro to thank for his life. He had been decisions away from disappearing into the bliss of the unknown when Shiro showed him that life was still worth living. He had shown him love, friendship and happiness; and for the first time in a while, Keith had been able to go to sleep every night without thinking of how alone he was.

Shiro and he became good friends after that. They needed few words to communicate and didn't keep false appearances around each other. Keith had been the first to know about Allura, and the first to meet her. He had been afraid to lose Shiro then, his only rock in the overwhelming sea of the world, but instead he had gained another friend to hold onto. Allura had been kind to him, never condescending or pitying him; instead pushing him with Shiro to try harder and be the best he could be again. Keith had finally grown into a pleasant rhythm of waking up in the morning and having happiness greet him instead of dread and doubt.

That's why when he had stumbled upon her lifeless body that Sunday morning, knowing it was his fault she had taken her last breath; his whole world had tumbled down. Everything seemed to promise doom and desperation instead of a glimmer of hope. And the worst thing was he couldn't tell Shiro about it. He had no idea what the other man would do with the knowledge that if Keith had acted differently, Allura would still be alive. He couldn't even bring himself to tell Nathan. He just decided to let his life wither away, just like the corpse of Allura, decomposing on a metal table in a morgue somewhere.

Keith had always thought of himself as a loner, someone who trusted his own instincts over anybody's advice. Shiro had been the first person he had given his trust to in a long time, and with a little effort, Allura could have been the second. Now, his friendship with Shiro felt like a lie, and Allura would never again chastise him for drinking too much. Keith didn't want to stay in this position, but at the same time he didn't know what to do.

So when Lance offered the opportunity to let go of his burden, Keith somehow decided to give it a shot. Even though he found Lance immature and childish, and knew that sharing what had happened that Saturday night was the last thing he wanted to do. After beating himself internally for more than a week, staying up until the sun rose up and ignoring all human interaction; maybe he did need to get rid of the poison that was devouring his insides. But that didn't mean that when the words tumbled out of his mouth, barely aware he was saying them, he didn't regret his decision.

"It's my fault. Allura's death. It's all my fault." Keith blurted out. He could not believe he had just said those words. The shock on Hunk and Lance's faces was a sure sign this had been a bad idea. Burrowing his face further into his knees, Keith held back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

Silence followed, none of the boys making any movement. Keith awaited with dread any reaction from the other two and knew that he would not be able to stand the tension much longer. Just as he decided to rush out of the room, Lance cleared his throat and spoke up, his voice softer and calmer than Keith had ever heard it.

"You didn't kill her, did you though?" Worry lined his words, and Keith risked a look in his direction. Lance was staring at him, sitting just a few inches from him. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Keith whispered.

"No, but I might as well have." He looked away from the other two, waiting for their judgement. Hunk spoke up next, sounding more intrigued than worried.

"What do you mean? How about you just tell us what happened? We won't judge you." Hunk glanced at Lance who was still staring intensively at Keith. "At least I won't, and Lance will learn to keep his mouth shut." Lance opened his mouth to protest but one look at Hunk and he was back to glaring at Keith. The raven haired boy read surprise as well as arrogance in those sea blue eyes, but also the slightest tint of worry and compassion, though he knew for a fact that Lance probably hated him too much to feel those things about him. _Why am I even sharing this with them again?_

"Alright." Keith hesitated. Should he really tell them this? They might report him to the police and then he could get a sentence for withdrawing information; not to mention Shiro would know and probably hate him for what he did. Or didn't do. "It was Saturday evening. I was in my room, drinking and watching TV. I got hungry and went downstairs to grab chips from the vending machine." Keith paused again. So far he had told most of this to the police. There was no shame in sharing the same thing with Lance and Hunk, was there? Hunk nodded, prodding him to continue his story. Keith took a deep breath and somehow narrated the rest.

"I got the chips and… Allura was outside. I figured Shiro would let her in because he was probably the one who asked her to come; and since I'm not much for social interactions, I just went back to my room." Keith drew a long breath. "I should have let her in; she would still be alive if I did. Instead I was selfish and left her outside to die. It's because of me that she's dead. All I had to do was open a fucking door, and I didn't!" Keith felt his tears overflow and he threw his face back into his knees, his arms surrounding them as he tried to hide his shame from the world.

"Keith," Lance eventually spoke after a few seconds, "you couldn't have known." Lance inched closer to Keith, now sitting by his side. Keith felt a long arm circle his shoulders and squeeze lightly. "It's not your fault, she would have died anyway."

"Yeah, don't beat yourself up over this." Hunk added, padding Keith's feet awkwardly. Keith sniffed and dried his tears with the back of his hand.

"I could have done something, and I didn't. It may have happened anyway, but I had a chance to at least delay it; and I didn't." Lance brought Keith closer to him, making the smaller boy fall unto his chest. Keith raised his head up violently and awkwardly hit Lance's jaw. "And since when have you grown all protective of me? A few minutes ago you were begging to know why I've been acting weird all week and now you're literally hugging me." Keith pushed himself away, immediately regretting the lost of human contact.

"Well I'm sorry if you're too good for basic human compassion. I may hate your fucking guts, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you cry yourself out all alone." Lance groaned and crawled away from Keith. The violet eyed boy knew he had hurt his feelings, but it still felt weird to receive another emotion than hate and spite from Lance.

"Sorry, it's just…." Keith started.

"It's okay, I get it. You've kept this secret inside for almost two weeks. I knew I was right." Lance's smug smile was back and this made Keith chuckle a little. Everything seemed back to normal, but he knew it would never really be. "So you're not the murderer, but you were still guilty. I was right." Lance jumped to his feet and started doing his victory dance again.

"Lance." Hunk reprimanded, glancing at Keith as if saying 'did you forget that this boy just fucking cried?' Lance settled back down, mumbling a 'sorry'. "So, Keith, now that Lance doesn't suspect you of being a killer, do you want to help us figure out who it really is? I mean, it's not like we can do much but we can do some investigation left and right…"

"Wait, you don't hate me for what I did?" Keith interrupted.

"Why would we do that? Thanks to you we know you're innocent and this only proves that my detective skills are on point." Lance said.

"Besides, you could actually help us pinpoint who could do such a terrible thing." Hunk added.

"I thought you didn't want to look for the murderer?" Lance complained.

"Yeah, well now I think it's getting interesting. Plus, midterms are almost done and I need some action in my life."

"Yes, I finally convinced you. Lance McClain for the win! So Keith, you want to join us in this investigation?"

"Me?" Keith was surprised Lance was actually talking to him like a normal person for once. No pity, no hate, and no hidden mischievous intentions; he didn't know what to make of it.

"Yeah you, how many other Keith do you know? Besides, you actually know more about this than we do, and now that you're cleared we can get this started."

"I guess." Keith felt like this would be one of Lance's short lived obsessions and he would soon give up on the whole thing; and there was little doubt that Hunk didn't think the same thing. Maybe this could help his depressed mood, or at least offer a nice diversion.

"Awesome! Now all we got to do is convince Shiro to join us and we could actually get somewhere! Oh, and we need a name, like the Scooby Gang!" Lance was now back to jumping up and down. Keith had stopped registering what he had said after Shiro's name. Shiro. He hadn't talked to him for more than a few seconds since that fateful Sunday, and he didn't feel like facing him again.

"Are you okay, Keith?" Hunk asked. "You look scared, or something. You don't have to join us if you don't want to."

"I'm okay, and I do want to join you guys. I just don't know if we should get Shiro into this. The man's got enough on his plate already."

"I guess that's true, but once you tell him your story, he'll want to know why Allura was here and what happened to her." Keith grew extremely pale as he felt all the blood drain from his face.

Tell Shiro? Telling Lance and Hunk was one thing, but Keith was not ready to tell Shiro. He probably never will be.

"I'm sorry, I can't do that. Shiro would hate me. Maybe we could just skip over that and focus on the other evidence. We already know Allura was here since she died here." Lance opened his mouth to protest when Hunk slapped him shut.

"Of course, we understand. Take your time; you don't have to tell him now." Keith released the breath he had been holding. Lance may have been a thorn in his ass since he had met him, but Hunk truly was a nice guy. Looking up to the other two, he wondered what the future held for them. He had never imagined he would be working with such an odd duo, both of them so positive and kind and so different from him.

 _This ought to be an interesting few weeks._


	8. Lance 4

As a kid, Lance had always enjoyed watching _Scooby Doo_. He even had figurines of all the characters back home which his parents had gotten him over the years. The show made catching bad guys look so easy: you go to the place where something evil happened, you investigate, laugh at Scooby and Shaggy's shenanigans and then got to reveal the villain by pulling the mask off whatever costume he had chosen to scare the valiant crew. Every episode brought its fair share of entertainment and evil villains, but Lance's favorite part as a kid was always the evidence behind the conviction of the criminal.

Maybe this was why he was so into shows like _Sherlock_ or _Bones_ now. He may not be the best when it came to deductions, mostly because he could not focus on anything for a long enough time, but his instincts were usually right. And right now his instincts yelled that Keith was innocent. The revelation he had just given them was beyond anything Lance could have imagined. When he had started following Keith around the last week, he thought that maybe Keith had heard some weird noises Saturday night, or something along those lines. So when Keith said he had nearly witnessed a murder and thought he was the reason behind it, Lance had felt his hatred for the raven haired boy slightly melt away.

 _He may be an annoying and arrogant asshole, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have feelings._ Lance had hugged him with compassion, only to be rejected as if he were nothing short of the plague itself. Once their little conversation about their future investigation was over and Keith had left the room, Lance collapsed on his bed and let out a loud grunt.

"Why does he have to be such a dick? I was just trying to be nice for once, and he just pushed me away. Sure I hate the guy, but that doesn't mean I should give him the cold shoulder if he starts crying." Hunk didn't reply, but in a way he didn't need to. Lance was thinking of how his mother would be proud of him for setting aside their differences for a while; but he couldn't help but feel like doing so had given the opportunity for Keith to strike twice as hard. Although he would never admit it to himself, part of his brain suggested that maybe the reason he felt so betrayed was that for once he realized that he maybe didn't really hate Keith. "Pfft, nonsense!" Lance replied to his own thoughts out loud. Hunk gave no sign that he cared since Lance had a terrible habit of talking to himself.

The brunet sat back up and stared at the clock. It was now 10:30 pm and he still had some things to do before going to bed. Grunting again, he moved to his desk and reluctantly got started on his work. He finished around midnight and immediately crashed in his bed. Hunk had fallen asleep an hour earlier because his classes started at 8:30 am the next day, which Lance didn't understand how it was possible to be awake enough at that time. Even if he woke up early his brain wasn't functional until at least 10 am. He turned around so as to face the ceiling. Hunk and he had decorated the room with various posters on the walls and objects on the shelves, but his favorite part had always been the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. There were only a dozen of them and they didn't even glow that much due to the large amount of light coming from the useless curtains.

Nevertheless they always looked back at him when he stared up towards the heavens. Stars had always been a constant in his life. He had grown up seeing them from the roof of his family house in the country and was sad to barely see any of them with the city lights here. It had been Hunk's idea to get them when they had been looking for decorations, and Lance had immediately agreed. At night, when he wasn't able to sleep or needed comfort, he would look at them until his eyes closed on their own and his mind was transported to the land of dreams. They felt like home, though they looked radically different from the ones he could see from his house. Over the months he had given most of them the name of someone he cared about. His family was there, with his parents and his three siblings. Hunk had joined the group as well, being his best friend since high school. Pidge, Hunk's neighbor and another of Lance's high school friends, gave her name to the tiniest star. Shiro had become another one and Allura's name had been given to the one closest to his.

Thinking of the people who mattered in his life, Lance felt his eyelids get heavier and soon sleep got the best of him. He woke up the next morning to the sound of his alarm clock, the last images of his dreams swept away by the annoyance of having to wake up and go to class. He reluctantly got out of bed and started his morning routine by checking his phone.

 _Hunk: Hey, just crossed Shiro on campus and he agreed to meetup tomorrow for our little investigation. Ask Keith to come!_

 _Lance: Hunk, you know I work tomorrow!_

 _Hunk: Yeah, but you got off at 9 so let's just meet after that._

 _Lance: …_

 _Lance: I guess._

 _Hunk: I thought you'd be more enthusiastic about this. You're the one who's obsessed with crime solving and mysteries after all._

 _Lance: I am psyched! How dare you question my love for solving murder!_

 _Lance: I just woke up is all._

 _Hunk: Well you better hurry up if you want to make it to class on time._

Hunk was right; Lance had spent the last 20 minutes texting on his bed and had not even started getting dressed. Throwing his phone on his pillow, he rushed through his routine and got out of the door just in time.

His day was rather uneventful compared to yesterday. Keith didn't sit next to him, or anywhere close for that matter, in the one class they shared together. Ignoring the raven haired boy, Lance went through his day on auto pilot until his last class. Then he hurried to the coffee shop and worked until the end of his shift. While his parents had agreed to pay for the majority of his college tuition, he still wanted to pay for his rent and other things with his own money. So he had taken up a job as a barista in a coffee shop near campus; and truth be told, he really enjoyed it there.

His boss Emily was nice and his two rotating coworkers Josh and Kent were jokesters he truly appreciated. They had become a tight knit group over the last few months and Lance was glad it was the case as it made his job that much better. He never would have thought making coffee for strangers would make him that happy. He had struggled at first, mixing in the wrong ingredients or pushing the wrong buttons and ending up with messes everywhere in the work space. Eventually, he had learned the ropes of the business and was now one of the faster employees; though no one could be quicker than Kent after three cups of coffee.

His favorite part of the job, however, wasn't mixing in the coffee, or even getting yelled at by Emily for slacking off; it was the social aspect of it. Sure, he could just take the person's order and hand them the drink; but it always made his day a little better when he was able to strike a conversation with a costumer. Most were pretty short and full of small talk, but every once in a while he would see the costumer come again and they often got along well. He had made several friends that way, people he knew by name and could talk to during his work hours when there wasn't any costumer to serve. He got quite a reputation as a talkative person, and it honestly did not bother him.

That night, he worked an extra shift just because he had the time and slightly wanted to get his mind off Keith. The raven haired boy haunted his thoughts, and while Lance had rationalized his reaction yesterday, he still thought about what Keith had told them. Could he really have stopped Allura's demise if he had opened that door? Lance wasn't one to believe in destiny, but he had been raised by a religious family and he knew that if God wanted things a certain way, well the universe would always end up executing it. Maybe Keith was just blaming himself for no reason.

Lance was stirred from his thoughts by his phone vibrating in his pocket. Emily didn't like him to text during work, but there were almost no people in the shop since it was getting rather late. Hiding himself as best as he could from his boss's piercing glare, he opened his phone and looked at his messages.

 _Hunk: So, did you ask Keith to come tomorrow?_

 _Lance: Not yet. I don't know if he wants to come, he seemed kind of weird about it yesterday._

 _Hunk: Invite him anyway; I'm sure he'll show up._

 _Lance: …._

 _Lance: Why don't you do it?_

 _Hunk: I don't have his number._

 _Lance: I don't have it either. What made you think I would?_

 _Hunk: Yeah but you have Wi-Fi because you're at work so just text him on Facebook._

 _Lance: You're at the dorms so you have Wi-Fi too._

 _Hunk: I'm not home actually._

 _Hunk: So you have to do it._

 _Lance: …_

 _Lance: Fine, but I don't believe your excuse for one second._

Lance groaned but opened his messenger app nonetheless. Emily still hadn't spotted him so far and he had served a couple of late night costumers while texting Hunk.

 _Lance: Hunk wanted me to tell you we're regrouping with Shiro tomorrow night after my shift ends at 9 pm. He wanted me to invite you._

To his surprise, Keith replied within the next minute.

 _Keith: I can come, I guess._

 _Lance: Cool, see you there then._

 _Keith: Bye._

 _Wow he actually said he did not just end the conversation abruptly with no goodbye words for once._ Lance was as surprised as he was confused. A warm feeling emerged in his gut and his first thought was that it must be the coffee he had been drinking to keep himself awake. It had to be that, there was no other thing that would cause his insides to weirdly feel like they were being cooked over an open fire.

Thankfully he was startled away from his thoughts as Emily appeared, looming over him with a reprimanding look on her face.

"Lance, I know it's late, but you could at least do your job if you want to get paid for your shift."

Lance nodded and sprang into action. He served a few more costumers and finished his shift an hour later. Hunk was, as he had thought, waiting for him in their room and he only managed a grunt before collapsing on his bed. It wasn't even that late, but he hadn't had much sleep last night and his job had a way of extracting any energy he might have had during the day. Within a few minutes, he was snoring loudly.

The next day went more or less the same way, but Lance couldn't ignore the knot that was slowly forming itself at the pit of his stomach. While he was ecstatic about finally solving a real mystery with his friends; he couldn't help but dread the moment they would all come together in his room. He already knew how Hunk felt about the whole thing and had recently learned more about Keith's attachment to it; but he was anxious about how Shiro would behave. It was his girlfriend after all, and they were treating a traumatic moment for him as little more than a means of entertainment.

Deep down he knew that Allura's passing had hurt and changed him as well, but he had never had the time to know her well enough to really feel like a piece of him went missing that day. Lance promised himself as he walked home from work that night that whatever happened between them, he would try his best to not hurt Shiro and to put him at ease. Shiro was his friend after all, and who was Lance to consider for even a short second behaving any other way than what his mother would have wanted.

When he opened the door to his room, Shiro was already talking to Hunk on the younger man's bed. They both stopped when they noticed Lance and Shiro stood up.

"Hey Lance, how was work?"

"Same as usual, I guess. I still smell like coffee though."

"You always do, even when you don't have work that day. I think it's just impregnated in your skin." Hunk said.

"Maybe." Lance put his bag down at his desk and sat on his bed, opposing the other two. "So did Hunk catch you up on what we're all doing here?"

"Yeah. I want to help. I don't know if this is good or not, but I want to know what happened. Allura deserves the truth." Shiro spoke in a monotone voice, as if trying to hold his emotions at bay. Lance felt the knot in his stomach spread to his lungs and he suddenly had trouble breathing. Sure Shiro told them he wanted this, but was he ready for the consequences? Looking at the determined look on Shiro's face, both resolute and slightly sad, Lance decided that Shiro was his own person and that if he wanted to do this, there was nothing Lance could do to talk him out of it.

Suddenly there was a shy knock on their door and Hunk rose up to get it.

"That would be Keith, if Lance kept his promise and invited him."

"I did, Hunk." Lance groaned. Hunk opened the door to reveal a tired looking Keith who was self-consciously rubbing his elbow.

"Come in, we were waiting for you." Keith followed Hunk inside and stood in between the two beds as Hunk sat down next to Shiro. He motioned for Keith to sit on Lance's bed and Keith slowly made his way to this spot. As they were seated, Lance was facing Hunk and had his back against the wall, while Keith was doing his best to avoid Shiro's eyes and was on the edge of the bed.

"So, I guess we all know why we're here tonight. We want to know the truth, and we will maybe get it."

"Maybe? You don't sound passionate enough, Hunk! We deserve to know what happened and we will do whatever it takes to discover the truth!" Lance interrupted. "Anyone have anything good they would like to share with the group?" Lance directed his gaze to the back of Keith's head, ignoring Hunk's disapproving look from across the room.

"What do we know so far? It happened during the night from Saturday to Sunday, and the police think it was after midnight if I'm correct. They interrogated everyone in the building in case anyone saw anything, but apparently no one did." Shiro recapitulated. "So why was it done here? Allura didn't live here."

"I think it's probably because they want to frame someone who does live here." Lance said, proud of his deduction. "Unless she just ended up being here because you asked her to come." Lance knew that he was probing Keith to blurt out his secret to Shiro, but the mullet boy held tight lips. Shiro, however, sighed deeply.

"I didn't ask her to come, so whoever did was her assassin." He pronounced the word painfully slow, as if it physically hurt to admit the truth to himself. "And I may have an idea of whom they're trying to frame." Lance jumped in his bed, startling Keith who almost fell to the ground. Both regained their composure as Shiro patiently waited for them to settle down. "I got a call from the police on Saturday. They wanted me to come to the station."

This time Lance only let a loud exclamation of surprise escape his lips while the others bore intrigued and confused looks. Shiro looked down at his interlocking hands and took a deep breath before continuing his narration.

"I don't know how much I can share with you guys, but the police seemed pretty certain I was a major suspect. They brought me in on Monday for questioning and they asked me again what I was doing that night. I told them the same thing I said the first time: I was studying for my upcoming exams and went to bed rather early. I wasn't expecting Allura and only texted her that morning to tell her I would be busy all week because of midterms. The last text I got from her was her reply to that." Shiro stopped, his broad shoulders drooping. The sight made Lance's heart clench, and he instantly wanted to help his friend but Hunk beat him to it.

"You don't have to say anything you don't want to. The last thing we need is for you to be uncomfortable."

"Thanks guys, but I want to share this with you. After all, if we ever want to get to the bottom of this we have to be on the same page." Shiro straightened his shoulders and cleared his throat. "So after I told my story to the police again, they said they had some new evidence that put me at the scene of the crime on that night. They even let it slip that I had become their primary suspect after I denied ever going out of my room that night."

"Why would they think you were there? What new evidence? Did they tell you?" Lance was now sitting at the edge of his bed, his elbow unconsciously brushing Keith as his gestures accompanied his speech.

"They wouldn't say. I have no idea how that could have gotten in their head. Maybe someone saw me outside that night, or lied that they did."

"Yeah, but they said it was 'new evidence', and wouldn't they have just called you last week if it had been that? Plus, I can argue that eye witness is not a valid argument against a person in court, I have psychology on my side!" Lance said.

"Maybe it wasn't a person; maybe it was something else that saw you." Hunk said, lost in thought. Suddenly a grin spread across his face as he yelled: "Cameras! There's video surveillance outside the dorms, maybe one of them caught you."

"But I wasn't there."

"You weren't, but the murderer was." Hunk glanced at Shiro, immediately scared of his choice of words. The older man didn't seem to be bothered by it however, so Hunk continued, "Somehow he found a way to hack the video surveillance or something to make it seem like you were outside. Better still, maybe he edited it so it looked like you were the assassin." Hunk instantly clamped a hand over his mouth although he knew it was already too late. Lance saw how mortified his friend was and looked over to Shiro before doing any stupid compassionate action he might regret ( _I'm not glaring at you, Keith, not at all._ ) His older friend was wincing but soon forced his face to return to a focused stare.

All Lance wanted to do was jump across the room and hug Shiro, but he was afraid it would come across as immature and childish. Fortunately, Hunk spoke through the growing awkward silence.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to put it so bluntly."

"It's okay. I hope you're right, because that gives us some hints at least. I don't know how we could get the feed from those cameras though."

"Leave that to me." Hunk said, taking his phone from his pocket and starting to text like a maniac. "Or rather, leave it to Pidge. She can hack into anything; I don't think those puny security cameras will be a problem for her."

"Who's Pidge?" For a second, Lance was startled by the sound of Keith's voice. The raven haired boy had been so silent Lance had almost forgotten he was in the room with them. Recovering from his strange surprise, Lance turned sideways to face his nemesis ( _yes he liked using that word; it made everything so much more dramatic._ )

"Pidge is my and Hunk's friend from home. She joined our gang in high school and she lives next door to Hunk. She's still in high school, but I hope she comes here to study!"

"Why would Hunk think she would be able to hack into the cameras? If she's still in high school, what makes you think she has the necessary level of skill?" Lance wanted to punch Keith right there and then. How dare he insult one of his friends! Sure, he and Pidge hadn't gotten along much at first, but they were now really close and got into serious shenanigans and pranks whenever they were left to their own devices.

"Pidge is very talented when it comes to computers. When she was ten, she completely dismantled and rebuilt her family computer." Keith's mouth hung agape and Lance was glad Hunk's words had managed such a wonderful sight. "It was broken though, but eventually she got the hang of it enough to make it work again and even improved it. She's been hacking her gym report cards since the beginning of sophomore year, so I think she's more than qualified for the job. At least she could get much more done than any of us can." Hunk said while he continued texting. Lance was back to sitting against the wall and enjoyed the sight of putting Keith back in his place as if it were a birthday present. Finally, Hunk leaped from his bed and grabbed his computer.

"Pidge can do a Skype with us now, her parents are asleep." Hunk said, starting up his laptop. Lance glanced at his watch. It was already 10:30 pm and a week night, but he knew Pidge didn't need many hours of sleep to stay alive in class the next day.

"Isn't a bit late?" Shiro asked, obviously not having reached the same conclusion as Lance.

"Trust me, Pidge never goes to bed before midnight, she Skypes her brother at night too so it's totally fine." Hunk said, calling his friend. Soon a sound indicated the call was accepted and a voice Lance recognized as Pidge's filled the silence in the room.

"Hey Hunk, I'm glad you called."

"Hey Pigeon! Are you sure the parental units are sleeping?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah, I can hear Dad snore and I'm pretty sure he only goes to sleep after mom does. The coast is clear."

"Okay, I'm going to put you on Lance's bed. Hang on a sec." Hunk got up and did as he had said, forcing Keith and Lance to join the other two on Hunk's bed.

"Hey everyone!" chirped Pidge. "How's it going Lance? Got any super embarrassing dating stories to share with me today?" Battling the blush of his cheeks, Lance replied:

"Nope, sorry. But we do have a juicy current events tale to tell you."

"Aren't you going to introduce me to the other two guys in your room first? Or should I be worried one of them is your future boyfriend that I don't know about?" Lance felt his face become even more flushed, but he regained his cool nonetheless.

"Ha-ha, very funny Katie." Pidge winced at the mention of her birth name. "This is Shiro, our resident assistant since last year, and Keith, the resident emo kid."

"Watch it!" Keith replied.

"I assume Hunk put you up to date." Lance continued, ignoring Keith's last comment.

"I only said we needed her help for some hacking and she agreed." Hunk said.

"Well it's a little more complicated than that." Lance added, but Hunk shut him up and went through a quick explanation of the last two weeks' events. He had already told Pidge about the murder, but now that they knew more it took him 30 minutes to go through all their information. Lance interrupted every once in a while to showcase how crucial his help had been in the development of the case, earning questioning and slightly mocking looks from Pidge. Once Hunk was done, Shiro spoke.

"So you think you can hack into the video surveillance here?"

"Oh yes, definitely. But I will need to physically interact with their interface." As only Hunk seemed to have understood that sentence, Pidge clarified, "I need to come to your place to connect my laptop to the cameras there. I can't do this from my own house."

"That does make things more complicated." Shiro said.

"Wait, you could come visit us this weekend! It's Halloween, and it's not like you have plans that night!" Lance said.

"Why would you think that? I may have been invited to a party." Lance shot her a knowing glare and Pidge pushed her glasses up the brink of her nose, defeated. "You're right, I don't have anything. And Halloween isn't the same without you guys. I hear Matt is throwing some huge party and he wanted me to come; so I guess I can ask my parents."

"Maybe don't mention the party; you're way too young to be this close to alcohol." Hunk said.

"I'm 17, Hunk. I'm not exactly a child anymore."

"Sure, Pidge, sure. Tell that to your children when you have to order take-out every dinner because you can't cook." Lance said. "So, you in?"

"Heck yeah! We're going to be an awesome team of investigators!"

"Oh! We're going to need a name!" Lance jumped again on the bed, startling Keith and Shiro.

"Yeah, something cool like the Scooby Gang, but that reflects our personality." Pidge said.

"The Hint Hunters?" proposed Hunk.

"Nah, too obvious." Pidge said.

"The Mystery …. Something?" said Keith, trying to add to the conversation.

"No, it needs to be something that doesn't directly hint that we're investigating this case. Something to do with how we fit together as a team…" Pidge thought, a hand rubbing her chin. Suddenly she shrieked and everyone covered their ears. "I've got it! Hunk, Lance and I always watched that 80s show 'Voltron: Defender of the Universe' based on an anime in which there are five different color mechanical lions that come together to form this super huge awesome robot that basically defends the universe. I was the green lion, Hunk was the yellow and Lance was the blue one even though we said he should have been the red for a long time."

"Yeah, I've watched that as a kid. I always liked the red one the best." Keith said, his head burying in his shoulders as if to hide his slight embarrassment.

"Then I guess we can name the team Voltron and we'll each take a lion color. I'll be yellow, Lance can keep blue, Pidge is green, Keith has red, and I guess Shiro can be the black lion." Hunk said.

"I have no clue what you're talking about, but if you like it then okay, I guess." Shiro said. Lance turned in astonishment at his friend. How could he be older than him and not have watched that show! It was his childhood!

"We have to show it to you!" Lance practically yelled. "Right now!" He added.

"Not now, it's almost midnight Lance. Maybe another day." Shiro looked more tired than Lance had ever seen him in that moment and he realized that they should probably bring their little session to an end.

"So I'll ask my parents tomorrow and I'll text Hunk their answer, which will most likely be yes. I can come early Saturday morning; I'm only a few hours away. It was nice meeting all of you, fellow paladins, but it is way past my official bedtime and if my parents wake up and find me on Skype it will not help my case. See ya!" The call ended and the four boys were left in silence.

"Well, this was productive but I'm really tired. I'm going to hit the hay. Good night guys." Shiro left, leaving Keith behind like a stranded child. Keith stood up, looking around as if he meant to say something, but ended up just leaving, mumbling a "goodnight" as he closed the door.

"What a jerk!" Lance said, jumping on his bed as soon as Hunk has cleared the computer off it.

"He may not be your best friend, because that would be me, but you're going to have to learn to work with him if you actually want to do this."

"Yeah, yeah."

"I can't believe this is happening. I kind of started it as a joke, but it looks like we might really get somewhere."

Lance was about to fall asleep when he caught a strong whiff of the coffee smell on his body.

"Shit, I'm going to have to shower." He grabbed his towel and soap and headed for the bathroom. Thankfully no one was there; it was almost midnight after all. He quickly rubbed the scent off his body as best as he could and found Hunk already sleeping when he got back. Lance silently changed into his pajamas and slipped into bed. Facing the ceiling and the stars that populated it, he couldn't help but focus on the last three unnamed stars. He had met several people he considered his friends over the last few years, but none of them seemed important enough to have one of his few stars named after them. But part of him still hoped he would find space in his life for those three significant others.


	9. Keith 3

Keith wasn't able to find sleep that night. But this time, it wasn't Allura's lifeless body that haunted him but Shiro's broken face. The man had always been strong and supportive and it was that much more frightening to see such stability be thrown off balance. All Keith had wanted to do was tell Shiro it wasn't his fault, none of it was; but the words wouldn't come. They would have felt like a betrayal. No matter what Hunk and Lance thought, Keith would never reveal to Shiro what he had seen that Saturday night. He would take this secret to his grave if it meant preserving their friendship.

Even with this decision taken, all his conscience backing it up, Keith couldn't fall asleep. His thoughts kept racing through his mind, each new one faster and more confusing than the last. They spiraled into a tornado of guilt and sadness, the likes of which Keith hadn't felt in months. Rolling to his side and grabbing his knees into a fetal position, Keith forced his eyes shut and tried to think of simple and happy things. The way the warm sun felt on his skin on a bright summer day. The fiery leaves falling in autumn. The smooth grey of an interstate highway. His shoulders relaxed, slowing his heartbeat and making Keith conscious for once of how tired he actually was.

He yawned, itching to pick up his phone to see the time all the while knowing it was a terrible idea. He turned around to his stomach, stretching his limbs and feeling his feet edge the duvet slightly off the mattress. As his brain slowly fell into a constant state of dark nothingness, he felt his whole body sink into the comfortable softness of his bed and he finally went to sleep. Keith's dream, however, seemed to do its best to get him awake again. As it started, Keith was in front of the dorms, sitting on the steps. Suddenly Allura was in front of him and he immediately saw his dream self get up and raise a knife. He hacked at Allura until the woman fell to the ground, hitting her head twice on the metal railing of the fence surrounding the small courtyard.

Blood was pooling everywhere around both of their bodies, Keith's shoes now soaked with it. He tried to get away from this dream, but all he managed to do was shift it. He was now standing in a church, a closed casket staring at the audience from the end of aisle. Shiro was beside him and people that his dream told him were Allura's family were seated nearby. Keith couldn't hear what the priest was saying but he could feel warm breath on his neck. Turning around to seek its source, he found Shiro's face close to his, an unnatural wicked grin disfiguring it.

"I know it's your fault, Keith. They all know it. You did this to her. You did this to me. You killed her. Without you she would still be alive. You took her life away, Keith; ripped it from a loving and nurturing environment and into the dark pit of death. You deserve to die. Maybe I should have let you kill yourself all those months ago. Then Allura would be happy and alive and we'd all be better off." Keith didn't notice the tears streaming down his face until Shiro harshly brushed them away. "You don't deserve to cry her death. You wanted this. You killed her. You're a murderer. You're not my friend. You're a monster."

Keith tried to push the nightmare away. All faces were turned toward him, chanting "murderer" over and over and over until Keith couldn't take it anymore and screamed. He shouted until his lungs emptied and then shouted again. Suddenly he felt hands shaking his shoulders and a distant voice repeating his name.

"Keith! Wake up buddy. It's just a nightmare!"

Keith felt his eyes open violently as he registered the room around him and Nathan's concerned face hanging above his own. A pinkish light was coming through the gaps of the curtains and painting the world a strange color.

"Are you okay man? You were screaming your head off before I managed to wake you up."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Keith shoved Nathan's hands off his shoulders and his roommate took the message and got back to his own bed.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Keith said with irritation. Nathan seemed to shrink back into himself. Keith drew in a deep breath, feeling his heartbeat finally settle down and feeling for the first time the drying tears on his cheeks. "Thanks for waking me up, I guess." Nathan appeared to relax after those words and slid back under his covers.

"Goodnight, man. I hope you don't get any more nightmares." Keith nodded, letting his roommate fall back asleep.

But he couldn't do the same. Falling asleep in the first place had been a struggle but it was now impossible. Instead, Keith silently got out of bed and slipped into his running shorts and shoes. He liked to run in the morning on a regular basis, though usually not this early. The frail light coming from outside reminded him of the morning he had found Allura and how the world had seemed so quiet then. Pushing those thoughts away, he grabbed his mp3 and headphones before heading out as silently as possible.

The sidewalks were empty and the street lights were still on. Keith hadn't bothered to check the time before leaving, but he knew the sunrise would happen soon. The world was in that fragile moment between night and day, when everything stilled to immobility and the two opposites collided. He enjoyed this time of day because there was no one there with him. It was just him against the world, the grey buildings that looked deserted from any humanity and the faintest sound of cars on the nearby highway the only sign that he truly wasn't alone. He picked up the pace until he could feel his heart burn and his lungs ache. Only then did he slow down and started heading back. The morning light was now overpowering its artificial counterparts, windows lighting up haphazardly over the buildings now recovering their true colors from their nightly grey.

He sneaked back into his room as Nathan was still snoring loudly and went for a quick shower before his first class. The bathroom was empty like it usually was at this time of day. Keith finally checked his phone when he got back and the clock read 6:45 am. It was still too early to go to the cafeteria for breakfast so Keith just sat on his bed, his lower body only covered by single towel. Grabbing the book he had been reading from his overhead nightstand, Keith tried to focus his mind on the story unfolding in it. At first his thoughts wandered about but he eventually found himself immersed in the world of the novel and dived into that secondary state so many readers know. The world around him faded to a dull version of itself and time seemed to stop.

He read throughout the entirety of the sunrise, his roommate's snores dimmed to a background noise. While the world around him started its daily motions, Keith lived the epic downfall of the hero alongside him, eyes running along the words on the page. He did not notice when Nathan's alarm rang or when his roommate left for his own shower. He did not care when his stomach growled, demanding that he went to the cafeteria for some food. Only when Nathan started getting ready for class did he notice the bright morning light coming through the now fully opened curtains. Fumbling for his phone, Keith opened it and saw that it was now 8:15 am. _Holy fuck I'm going to be late to class!_

He jumped off his bed, catching his falling towel at the last minute, and went over to his closet. In less than ten minutes he was ready and rushed out the door soon after Nathan. Keith had learned to never talk to Nathan in the morning after an incident during the first day of classes last year. Both had had a class at 8:30 am and decided to walk to campus together. Nathan had been running late and Keith had tried to wake him up but received a punch instead. His following 'good morning' was only met by a 'fuck you' as Nathan went back to sleep. They had still walked over to class together, but Keith had learned not to bother him in the morning.

He almost ran his way to class, entering the classroom seconds before the teacher got up to close the door. Lance was sitting in the front row, a large cup of coffee sitting alongside a notebook on his desk. Keith made his way to one of the last free seats at the back of the room and took out his laptop as the professor started his lecture. He tried to focus, but his thoughts always seemed to go back to Shiro. The fact that Lance was looking at him every once in a while didn't help either. The boy looked more tired than Keith had seen him in a while, but he could easily blame it on his lack of sleep due to his obsession with their investigation.

The murder case. Keith couldn't believe Lance and Hunk actually thought they could investigate such an event. It was laughable, really. Sure they had evidence and enough knowledge with Shiro around, but no one would take them seriously. What could a bunch of kids do that the police couldn't? Not to mention Lance wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. Keith was pretty sure he cared more about flirting with every girl he met than applying himself to such a complex problem. They didn't stand a chance.

Finally his class ended and Keith managed to grab a cup of coffee before his next class. He only had two morning classes on Fridays, which was nice since it allowed him to spend the afternoon at the gym. But considering he had already gone for a morning run and still hadn't eaten, working out would have to wait until another day. His next class was as uneventful as the first and Keith spent most of it sneaking his book under his desk and trying to dive back into its imaginary world. He only found himself reading the same sentence over and over again, his mind stubbornly staying in this very monotone reality.

Soon enough he was back in his room, alone. Nathan had martial arts practice after his classes and wouldn't be back until later that evening. Keith sat on his bed, trying to think of something to do to fill his time. He had already grabbed a sandwich in the cafeteria on the way back and was now eating it, not caring about the crumbs falling on his lap and his comforter. The sky was turning a dull grey outside his window. _It'll rain tonight._ Once he was done eating, Keith took out his book once more, but was stuck again on the same page. His thoughts wandered about as the novel lay open on his lap.

He was only interrupted hours later when Nathan came into their room soaking wet. The sound of the key in the lock startled Keith and the book he had been holding the entire time closed itself, losing the place where he had been in the story. A quick look outside confirmed that it was indeed pouring. Nathan was now gathering his bathroom things for a shower, leaving Keith alone once again. His watch told him it was 6 pm. The sun was setting over a cloudy sky. Keith went through his book to find the place to put his bookmark. He hadn't even been aware that time had passed.

 _Maybe I just fell asleep._ Although Keith didn't feel any of the grogginess that came with impromptu naps, he did feel less tired than he had this morning. His thoughts seemed to have slowed to a standstill. He tried to remember what he had thought about in the last hours, but all he could gather was how confused yet somehow excited he felt about this new group that had created itself around him. While last night's discussion had been interesting to listen to, Keith couldn't quite shake off the fact that he hadn't participated that much. Yet everyone else had seemed fine with it.

Shoving those thoughts away, Keith finally found the last page he had read and placed his bookmark there. Nathan re-entered the room at this moment and changed in the middle of it without bothering to close the curtains. This habit of his had embarrassed Keith at first, but he now admired the confidence his roommate had. Keith always changed with the curtains closed, as far from Nathan as possible. But his roommate could walk around the room in his underwear with no shame whatsoever. Not that he had anything to be ashamed of. His body was muscular enough from his time as a competitive swimmer and spending Friday nights practicing martial arts, and those black eyes of his made his entire face enticing.

He and Keith got along fine, well enough to share their room a second year. They had developed a good coordination where neither overstepped the other's boundaries. They had a mutual respect which grew into a sort of friendship. Keith wasn't one to let people in, but he had plenty of 'friends' and he could say that Nathan was one of them. He was comfortable around the guy, enough to tell him about his day and such. However, he also knew that they would never be really friends. While they both liked their privacy and going to the gym, they were very different when it came to other things and Keith was fine with the way things were. But Nathan had started being worried for him after Allura's death. He would ask if he was okay at least twice a day and try to talk to him even more. All Keith wanted was for things to go back to the way they were before.

The ping of his phone brought his attention back to reality and Keith reached for the device on his bed. It was a text from an unknown number. Curious, he opened it and read:

 _Hunk: Hey Keith, I got your number from Shiro. Pidge says she can come tomorrow around lunch. Want to join us?_

Keith groaned, slightly annoyed at Shiro for sharing his phone number with anyone who asked. He replied nonetheless; he didn't want Hunk or Shiro to get suspicious.

 _Keith: Yeah, sure._

 _Hunk: Awesome! Meet us downstairs tomorrow at 1._

Keith still didn't know what to think of this 'investigation' they had going on. Sure it beat playing video games or reading alone in his room, but he wasn't sure they would amount to anything. As if sensing his thoughts, Nathan chose this very moment to act all motherly.

"Are you okay buddy?"

"Peachy."

"You seem awfully lost in your thoughts lately. Is Lance still annoying you?" Keith chuckled.

"No, actually. We kind of hung out recently." Nathan did a complete 180 and faced Keith, an extremely confused look on his face.

"Let me get this straight: you were in the same room as Lance and did something together and you're both still alive?"

"What do you know, Lance can actually act like a decent person every once in a while."

"What were you guys doing? Finding some other guy to take your hate out on?"

"No, Lance got this ridiculous idea that we're going to create a Scooby Gang and solve Allura's murder. I don't even know why I agreed to this thing."

"What? Is he out of his mind? You could get into trouble. Let the police do their fucking job." Nathan did not curse much, so when he dropped the f-bomb, he meant it.

"Relax, it's not like we have substantial evidence or anything. I'm pretty sure he'll give up in a few weeks. Besides, Shiro is with us so it's not like he's going to let us get into trouble."

"You're really doing this? And I thought you were the responsible one here."

"Like I said, Shiro won't let us do anything illegal. And," Keith paused, not sure whether what he wanted to say should be shared, "I kind of want to see where this goes. Lance could end up making a fool of himself and there's no way in the world I'm going to miss that."

"As long as you don't do anything stupid, I guess it's worth it to let Lance embarrass himself some more." Nathan smirked, going back to sitting on his bed.

"Why are you so concerned? I liked it better when you just let the fuck alone."

"I just don't want to come home from another weekend to find your body lying on the dorms' steps. I care about you, you're my friend Keith." Keith felt the heat rise up to his cheeks but refrained from letting a smile spread across his lips.

"Thanks, I guess. But please don't be so overprotective, I can carry myself fine."

"I know that." Nathan paused; his mouth still opened as if he wanted to add something but he decided against it and closed it once more. "Just promise you won't get yourself killed."

"I promise." Keith grunted, not used to having someone other than Shiro act like his parent. Thankfully, Nathan didn't speak after that and Keith was able to relax.

As the silence settled in their room, Keith was able to hear the constant light drumming of the water on the building. The faint city lights were filtering through the drops and spreading their warm yellow colors on the windows. Looking down at the book sitting on his lap, Keith realized he was starting to get hungry. For lack of a better thing to do, he went down to the cafeteria and grabbed some dinner.

He went to bed rather early that night, after playing some video games to change his mind. Midterms were over but somehow he did not feel the usual relief that accompanied this time of year. If he had to be honest, he was anxious about what the next day would bring. He knew their little group couldn't achieve much that the police couldn't do, but maybe they would uncover something they were not meant to. Whatever it was, he wasn't sure if he wanted to find out. Lance and Hunk had seemed determined to figure this conundrum out, and Shiro was inhabited by a desperate need for closure. But what did Keith hope to get out of this? Confirmation that he wasn't the killer? More suspicions thrown at him?

As his thoughts continued to ramble, he slowly fell asleep, his brain feeling like a tangled ball of yarn, all his grey matter intertwined and giving him a slight headache. He woke up the next morning to find the room vacant again, which could only mean it was late enough for Nathan to have already left to visit his family. The guy was lucky to have cousins living nearby and he visited them almost every weekend. Their house was pretty quiet and apparently a great place to study; and it didn't hurt that they had a huge yard and personal bathrooms. Nathan usually left a couple of hours after waking up on Saturday morning and came back late Sunday evening; and while his cousins' house was great for working, he seemed to get all his work done on Sunday night. Keith would never understand how he could procrastinate for a whole weekend; but if it worked for him, then why not?

Suddenly, he was brought back to reality by a loud vibration from his phone. Grabbing it, he realized he had missed messages from Hunk and Shiro.

 _Hunk: Hey, Pidge is here. We're waiting for you downstairs._

 _Hunk: Dude, are you coming? Lance is hungry and I'm afraid he might eat Pidge if we don't stop him soon._

 _Hunk: Okay, so I don't know if you're coming or not, but we're going to the pizza place down the street because Lance started chasing Pidge around. Join us if you want._

Reading the time, Keith realized this was from a couple of minutes ago. The text he had just received was from Shiro.

 _Shiro: Keith, I know you don't like Lance but I really hope you can join us on this. I don't want you to shut yourself off from the world again._

 _What did I do for those people to think I either hate them or myself when I'm late for something?_ Hurrying out of bed, he texted Hunk back to make sure they didn't leave the pizza place without him.

 _Keith: Hey, sorry I just woke up late. I'm running down to the pizza place ASAP._

Putting on random clothes from his closet, Keith realized that this was the most sleep he had gotten in a while. His head was still scrambled and slightly hurting, but at least he wasn't on the edge of falling asleep. Once he had gotten dressed in a decent shirt and his jeans from the day before, along with his favorite jacket; he ran his fingers through his messy bed hair. He brushed his teeth in the common bathroom and finally put on his boots before leaving the room with only his key and his wallet. He received another text from Hunk once on the elevator.

 _Hunk: We're only sitting down now. Sorry if I freaked you out. You don't have to break your neck running here, walking is fine._

 _Keith: It's okay, I just overslept. I guess that's the downside of not sleeping much for two weeks._

Keith got out of the dorms and the pleasant weather that became rare at this time of year welcomed him. A few clouds hung on the bright blue sky, the sun illuminating the world to its brightest hue. He walked as fast as he could to the restaurant, guessing Hunk would maybe worry if he got there too fast. _He's so weird, why would he care whether I run or walk?_ A light breeze made the warm sunlight that much more appreciated and ruffled Keith's hair, sending a few strands to brush against his face. On his way he saw a couple of decorated houses, some much more festive than others. He had also forgotten that today was Halloween. He always had a costume prepared even if he rarely went trick or treating, the one he had now dating from the year before when he had gone with Shiro to a party.

Memories from that event flooded his thoughts. Shiro had been dressed as a vampire and Keith as Mothman, a running joke from his teenage obsession with cryptids. They had gone to a party one of Shiro's friend had been throwing, Shiro convincing Keith he would help him with his homework if he went with him. In the end, Shiro hadn't really needed him as he was soon grabbed by his friend into a heated game of beer pong and Keith had spent the evening alone. Not that it had mattered; Keith always liked to be alone. He eventually had to bring back a very drunk Shiro and had helped him vomit his guts out until the early hours of the morning. Shiro had promised after this that he would never go to a party again, but his oath was broken a few weeks later with the party where he had met Allura. Thinking back to that time, Keith realized how so much easier things seemed to be back then.

He eventually reached the restaurant a few minutes later, almost missing it due to being lost in memories. Hunk waved at him through the window as he opened the door.

"Hey, sorry I'm late. I overslept." Keith said, taking a seat beside Shiro who was next to the girl that had to be Pidge.

"It's okay dude, it's Saturday." Hunk replied, taking a bite of his pizza. It was then that Keith noticed the amount of food in front of him. Three pizzas were laid over the table, covering it so much it was invisible. Realizing how hungry he was, Keith grabbed a slice and started eating.

"So, this is Keith." Hunk said for Pidge who turned her head around Shiro's torso to stare at the boy.

"Nice to meet you. I see why Lance thinks you have a mullet." Keith almost chocked on his pizza, but he swallowed and turned to face Pidge.

"He's still convinced of that? Jesus." Pidge grinned.

"So, what's the plan?" She asked.

"We make a distraction to get you a direct access to the cameras… or something. I don't know how this works." Lance said.

"We just need to find a way to sneak into the room where the CDs of the videos are stored. They should be labelled and everything. Like Pidge said before, she needs to read it on her laptop to know if it's the real one or not. So all we need to do is make sure no one finds her there and we're good. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy." Hunk accompanied his speech with a thumbs up.

"That sounds simple enough." Shiro said. "We can do it this afternoon."

"No, actually we can't, Shiro. You don't have a costume and it is unacceptable. You can't go to the party without one!" Lance said.

"Party?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, my brother is having a party tonight and my parents want me to be there because he needs to 'keep an eye on me'", Pidge said with air quotes, "so I'm dragging you all in my misery."

"Talk for yourself, I haven't been to a party in forever! I can't wait!" Lance said. "But we need to find a costume for Shiro first. Keith, do you have a costume?"

"I got something from last year. Don't you still have yours Shiro?"

"No, I threw it away. It was soaked in alcohol and ripped in several places."

"So getting the video feed will have to wait until tomorrow. Besides, Sunday is the day the staff comes in later than usual, they're only here at 1pm." Lance punched the air, probably convinced he had won his argument. Keith couldn't care less which day they broke into the surveillance room, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to go through an afternoon of shopping with Lance.

"And Matt says the party is BYOB, which he says means you have to get your own booze, I think." Pidge added, pushing her glasses up her nose.

"Matt is your brother? The kind of scrawny brunet with glasses? He does look like you now that I think about it." Shiro asked Pidge.

"You know my brother? He never mentioned you, and I would have known since you're eye candy and my brother is bisexual as fuck." Red rose to Shiro's cheeks.

"We had a class together last year. He introduced me to Allura at a party of his. He's in a fraternity, right?"

"Yeah, I do remember him talking about one of his girlfriends getting this hot bf. He didn't like you very much, I think."

"I can see why. If your brother looks like you and Shiro looks like Shiro, well there's not really a choice there, is it?" Lance yelped in pain. "Why did you kick me?"

"Your gay is showing Lance, and you don't get to insult my bother for free." Keith's brain stopped working for a moment. Lance was gay? That was impossible; he was always running after girls that just kept on rejecting him. Keith had never seen him with another man, so how could he possibly be gay? Thankfully, Lance elucidated this mystery.

"For the thousandth time, Pidge, I'm not gay, I'm bi. Get it right."

"You know she's just doing it to annoy you, right? You're so sensitive about it." Hunk said. Pidge's comment made more sense now, even if the fact that Lance was somehow attracted to guys still baffled Keith.

"Are you okay Keith? Your mouth is hanging wide open and you haven't blinked in a while." Pidge asked, waving her arm in front of his face, bringing him down to reality.

"I… uh… I'm fine. I just…. Didn't know. About Lance." _Nice Keith, you have such a way with words. Try not to make a fool of yourself next time._

"Well now you know, yay, bravo, everyone clap." Lance said, a deadpan expression on his face.

"Sorry, I just thought you were straight, since, you know, you kind of flirt with every girl you meet."

"Every cute girl, not the ugly ones." Lance winced, Keith deducing Pidge had kicked him again. "Why do you care anyway?" he added, wincing again as his foot made a loud noise as it hit the bench under Pidge. Everyone laughed, Lance's question forgotten by all but Keith. Why did he care? Because it changed the way he looked at Lance, because he had never seen him with a man and it seemed weird that the brunet would identify as bisexual, because it just made looking at him for longer than socially acceptable that much weirder, because…because Keith was gay and he didn't know how Lance would take those news? _He wouldn't try to date me, would he? I mean, he hates me, right?_

They continued to eat, sometimes in silence but most often accompanied by Lance's jokes. Pidge fit in nicely with their group, matching Lance's stupid one-liners with sarcasm that even Hunk was not able to do, and even getting along well with Shiro. Keith felt like the odd one out, but ever so often they would ask his opinion on something and he would feel included. It was strange for him to receive this much attention from this many people without it being awkward or intentionally weird. It was like he belonged and he would feel naked without those people around him. Lance's stupidity still made him groan which got him many comebacks from the boy, but otherwise they got along surprisingly well.

They finally ate the three pizzas in front of them, though it was easy with Lance and Hunk's appetites. The conversation dragged on to Voltron as Lance reiterated that Shiro should watch the show, even if it was just so that he was more familiar with where their team name came from. The older man didn't protest, knowing it would amount to nothing against Lance's determination.

"Oh, and I almost forgot!" yelled Lance, reaching into his pockets, his tongue pulled out between his teeth. "I made these last night for our mission." He pulled out five colored braided string bracelets. "It would have been awesome if we had coordinated costumes for each paladin color, but I guess these will have to do." He started handing them out, "Green for Pidge, yellow for Hunk, black for Shiro, red for mullet boy and blue for me." They all took their bracelet and put it on except Keith, who was staring at Lance with exasperation.

"Really? Friendship bracelets?"

"Not friendship, not with you ass-wipe. Just a way to secretly be a team on Halloween. But if you want to be a douchebag and go home alone, you're more than welcomed to." Keith grabbed the bracelet swiftly from Lance's outstretched hand.

"At least you didn't make us wear matching suits that scream 'we're a bunch of nerds' to everyone at a fucking frat party. Have you ever been to one of those, or are you just too lame to show your face near a frat house?"

"Keith!" Shiro said, turning angrily towards the raven haired boy.

"For your information, I have been to frat parties before, but I'm too cool for them so people don't invite me because they're scared I'll steal their thunder." Lance put a hand on his chest, a proud expression on his face. Pidge and Hunk chuckled in their hands, trying but failing to be silent. Keith just rolled his eyes, shoving the red bracelet into his jacket pocket.

"Sure thing, I'm pretty sure you're one of those people puking in the toilet before midnight."

"Like you know how to party, mullet!"

"At least I know how to hold my alcohol!"

"Yeah because you drink like a pussy!"

"Enough you two! Can we just try to get through the day without one of you killing the other?" Shiro interrupted, Pidge and Hunk still silently laughing into their hands. Lance crossed his arms over his chest and looked away, faking a wounded look. Keith just stared down at his knees, wondering how Lance could be such an annoying little dipshit. This was a mistake; there was no way they would be able to get along. Why did he think that doing this would be a good idea? _Because I want to know what happened and I have to be there for Shiro._ But now this didn't seem to be of such importance.

"I don't know if I can do this." Keith whispered, hoping he could just get up and leave.

"What do you mean?" Shiro asked, "We're doing this together." Keith got up and left the restaurant. He got as far as the door when Shiro grabbed his hand. "Keith, please. I know you don't get along with Lance-"

"That's the understatement of the year."

"But I want you to try to get along with the others at least. They're nice people, and you have to stop spending so much time alone." Keith turned away from Shiro's moralizing glare. "Don't look away; I know you've been avoiding me since Allura passed away. Now, I don't want to force you into telling me anything you don't want to, but can you please make an effort and do this for me?" Keith crossed his arms, staring at his feet. Shiro did have a point and Keith was not ready to tell him anything yet. _I guess I'm going to have to do this now if I don't want to lose the only friend I have._

"Fine, but you're not the boss of me."

"I know. Now please come back to the table and apologize."

"Fuck no. I'm coming back, but I'm not apologizing."

Shiro sighed but let it go. They walked back to the table, Lance, Hunk and Pidge breaking apart from their tight circle. _They were probably talking about me. But what do I care?_ They sat down and Hunk spoke up.

"So, how about we pay and then go look for a costume for Shiro. Then we can go buy booze for the party tonight and we'll be all set."

"And Shiro needs to watch Voltron!" Lance added.

"If we have time." Shiro replied, his face impassive.

They paid for the pizzas, splitting the bill evenly even though Lance ate more than anyone else. Keith looked at the time on his phone: 2:30pm. _God, this was going to be a long day._ They left for Lance's favorite thrift shop. It was only a few minutes away and they made it without any more arguments. Keith reverted back to his technique of keeping his mouth shut unless asked to speak and found that apart from the glares from Shiro, it was the best solution to the 'Lance' problem. They looked around the store for anything that would fit Shiro, the place filled with Halloween costumes for the occasion. Pidge found a robot costume but Shiro's torso didn't fit in it. Lance proposed a mermaid costume that was shut down immediately. Finally they settled on a simple ninja suit that was flexible enough to fit Shiro's whole body. It wasn't great but it also wasn't expensive so Shiro just bought it and then headed to the liquor store.

It was only 4pm when they came back to the dorms. Keith sighed with relief at the idea of crashing alone in his room before being dragged to the party, when Lance shouted:

"Everyone to my room to watch Voltron!" Everyone groaned but complied nevertheless.

"Only until 6." Shiro added, "I have homework to do and I'm pretty sure everyone is tired and needs some alone time." He said, though Keith that the 'everyone' only really concerned him.

They got to Lance and Hunk's bedroom, and tried to fit everyone on the same bed. This turned out to be impossible, so Pidge had to seat in between Hunk's legs. Keith was squished against the wall, Shiro on his left. They put the laptop on Lance's bed and turned off the lights. Keith hadn't watched this show since childhood and all he could remember was a vague feeling of liking the concept of it more than the characters themselves. Seeing it again now was different, especially because he was surrounded by people he didn't really consider his friends. Lance kept commenting on obvious plot holes and comparing Keith's hair to the one of the pilot of the black lion. Keith grunted in response each time, more interested in the tidbits of information Pidge and Hunk exchanged. They seemed to know a lot about the show, almost as if they had eaten the content of the Wikipedia page and gained all of its knowledge.

Thankfully, Shiro was true to his word and ended their viewing session around 6pm. Lance reminded everyone they would leave at 9pm for the party and Keith sighed as loud as he could, irritating Lance. However, he was glad to finally spend some time alone in his room. The sun was already gone and the street lights barely lit his dark room. Keith liked to just lie on his bed in his unlit room. He knew it was a weird habit but there was something to be found in the darkness that took hold of the environment that couldn't exist when it was flooded with light. It eased Keith's nerves, making it easier to think but also easier to not think at all. Today it was the latter; Keith stared at the ceiling and emptied his mind. Growing at the back of it was the warning that he would eventually have to get up and get ready for a party he did not want to go to. Until then, he could just stay still, and exist.

He stirred from his meditative state about an hour later, still having plenty of time to get dressed. The idea of doing some school work popped up in his mind, but he pushed it away. He did however open his laptop and played some video games until 8:30pm. Or at least that's what he said to himself, but when he was again brought back to reality by the harsh ping of his phone, he jumped in his seat. The message was from Shiro and thankfully the clock only read 8:45pm.

 _Shiro: I hope you're not late this time._

 _Keith: Yes, father._

 _Shiro: Come on Keith; try to get along with the others._

 _Keith: I don't get why I have to be dragged to this party._

 _Shiro: Because Pidge wants us to and it'll be a great opportunity to bond as a team._

 _Keith: This isn't a football game. We're just a bunch of kids claiming they're going to solve a murder._

 _Shiro: You agreed to join and made a commitment. Now you commit._

 _Keith: …_

 _Keith: Fine._

Keith closed his game and laptop and grabbed his costume from the top of his closet. Part of him wanted to stay here and let the others have a night of fun, but the other part told him he would feel guilty if he didn't go. _Shiro needs you, he still considers you a friend._ He was cornered, his only option spending the evening in the vicinity of an intoxicated Lance. _Maybe that won't be too bad, he's probably even more idiotic when drunk._ Keith put his costume on, grabbed his keys and left his room.

Shiro was already downstairs, looking slightly threatening as well as ridiculous in his own costume.

"I'm glad you decided to come."

"I couldn't leave you alone with the poor excuse for a human that is Lance. Never in a billion years."

"Well, maybe tonight is the night you realize he's not that bad. He's actually pretty smart and really fun to be around."

"Whatever you say, dad." Shiro glared at him, as he always did when Keith reproached his fatherly attitude. Shiro was one to worry about everyone around him and while it was nice to be on the receiving end of such a caring attitude, it was sometimes a pain in the ass to reassure Shiro that he was indeed eating three meals a day. Keith was saved from further inspection by the other threes getting off the elevator.

"Who's ready to party?" Lance shouted. Keith turned around to face them and repressed a laugh at their ridiculous costumes. Pidge was in a green alien suit with additional antennas. Lance and Hunk had opted for lion onesies; Lance's being blue for some reason while Hunk's was a regular yellow. They looked like children.

"Everyone is ready? How far is Matt's place?" Shiro asked.

"It's only a few minutes away; he's not too far from campus. We can walk there." Pidge said.

They left the building and Keith felt a wave of embarrassment hit him as he realized they must look extremely stupid. Fortunately, other students were also out in the streets with the craziest costumes. The Voltron team blended in.

"Hey, I noticed we're all in our Voltron lion color except Keith. What is your costume supposed to be anyway? An ant?" Keith didn't have the time to answer as Pidge spoke first.

"It's clearly Mothman, Lance. I am disappointed you don't know that. Then again, I don't expect you to know what most cryptids are."

"What the fuck is Mothman?"

"A cryptid, like Pidge said." Keith answered, his appreciation of Pidge growing. She was the first person he had met who had recognized that costume at first sight. "I didn't know one of your friends was cool, Lance."

"Lance may be an idiot, but his friends sure aren't." Pidge replied with a wink.

"Hey, the fact that Keith thinks you're cool is just proof that you aren't!" Lance said. Keith rolled his eyes.

"Really, Lance? You want to put this much importance in Keith's opinion? I didn't know you cared what he thought, is there more to this than what I've previously been told?" Pidge nagged, smirking widely.

"No, I don't give a shit about Keith's opinion! I hate him with every inch of my being! Which is more than you, Pidge."

Pidge ignored his comment and went on to talk to Hunk, making Lance even more infuriated.

"This is your fault, Keith."

"How the hell is it my fault?" _Don't engage him; you're not even at the party yet._

"Lance, let it go." Shiro interjected. Keith grinned at seeing his friend be fatherly with someone else for once. Lance retreated like a puppy being denied a treat. They walked mostly in silence after that, the atmosphere still charged from the previous exchange. Keith was starting to look forward to actually drinking tonight, as it usually made terrible social situations suck less. He was also curious about how the others would act after a few drinks. He already knew Shiro was able to hold his alcohol well, but something told him Lance and Hunk would have more trouble. He didn't know whether Pidge would drink or not, but he didn't want to be the idiot to ask when the others didn't seem bothered by this fact either.

They finally reached a house which was decorated and had a few students coming in and out. They knocked on the front door and Pidge yelled for Matt. A taller version of Pidge came through the hallways and greeted them with a grin:

"Katie, you made it. I was starting to worry."

"Yeah, right. I texted you not five minutes ago."

"But what would mommy and daddy dearest say? Their little daughter, away from her brotherly protection and with a bunch of young delinquents."

"Shut up nerd and let us in. You already know Lance and Hunk, and apparently Shiro too," Pidge said, pointing at each of them in turn, Matt's grin lowering at the mention and sight of Shiro. "And this is Keith."

"Mothman, right? Cool costume, man."

"Thanks." Keith didn't know it was possible but the two siblings had already gained his appreciation, which was a rare thing as he usually was in a defensive mode.

"Come on in. I hope you brought booze, because we just have beer for games." Pidge raised Shiro's arm holding the vodka and Matt nodded in agreement. They followed the brunet inside, where only a few people were. The living room was furnished with two couches facing each other on the left and a foldable table on the right where a couple of cups were already set up. Keith looked around the room for anyone he knew, though he suspected it was a lost cause. Lance was already pestering Shiro to take a round of shots so the older man gave in. They took turns drinking from the bottle while Pidge grabbed a beer from the opened carton.

"He's got a bunch of them, and I hate the taste of hard liquor; I don't think he'll mind." Matt's loud protest could be heard from the other side of the room, but Pidge ignored it and started drinking.

The warmth of the alcohol started to make itself felt in Keith's chest and he was more at ease with being surrounded by strangers. Suddenly, Lance rushed to the table and pointed to a ping pong ball.

"Anyone up for beer pong?" Keith rolled his eyes. Hunk and Pidge joined their friend however, forcing Lance to let them be a team and make him search for a partner. "Shiro, want to play?"

Shiro was about to answer when someone else greeted him and he had no choice but to leave their group and talk to the other people he knew.

"Keith, want to play with Lance?" asked Hunk. Keith suddenly wished he had been anywhere but here. _Playing with Lance? As a team? I'd rather drink that whole bottle of vodka than have to suffer that._ And yet, he saw himself join the table at Lance's side and reply:

"Are you guys prepared to be crushed?" Pidge and Hunk smiled simultaneously. Keith turned to face Lance only to find him open mouthed and staring at him.

"Are you serious? I can't play with you; you're going to make me lose."

"Are you sure you're not the one who's going to make us lose?" While Lance kept his mouth hanging wide open, Hunk and Pidge filled 12 cups with 2 cans of beer. Keith helped display them and by the time the game was ready, Lance had closed his mouth and seemed prepared to accept his fate. Before they could start however, Pidge wanted to set a bet.

"How about losers have to pay for lunch for a week?" Hunk proposed but was immediately shut down by Pidge.

"Losers have to do the others' laundry for a week!" Lance shouted.

"Lance, I don't fucking live with you guys, or did you momentarily forget?" Pidge pushed her glasses up her nose, seemingly deep in thought. "We need something that can be done tonight and that is embarrassing yet entertaining enough…"

"Losers have to kiss!" Lance said, grinning. Keith's heart skipped a beat, or maybe several. _Kiss? Was Lance nuts?_

"What if we lose, dipshit?" Keith said once his heart settled.

"We won't, I'm great at this. Besides, Pidge hates kissing people so this will be interesting and yet embarrassing for her."

"Sneaky of you to use my asexuality against me, but I can make you pay for it." And without further debate, Pidge threw her ping pong ball and watched it land in one of Keith and Lance's cups.

"Oh, it's on midget!" Lance said, drinking the cup where the ball had landed. He took a shot, and missed. Keith groaned.

"Lance, I thought you said you were good. That was shit. I'm not kissing you if we lose."

"No backing out now, the game started. " Hunk said with a smirk, taking his turn and thankfully missing.

"I never agreed to this." Keith complained, almost ready to leave the game.

"Too bad." Lance said, handing him the ball. Keith grunted and reluctantly took a shot at the cups on the opposite side of the table. He got it in and Hunk drank the cup. They continued to play, Lance gradually getting better but still not taking down as many cups as possible. Pidge was a force to be reckoned with but was balanced by Hunk's poor aim which got slightly worse with the number of cups he drank. Keith had only drunk 2 cups and had managed to hit 3.

Soon, they were down to 2 cups each, and it was Lance's turn to shoot. He missed. Then Hunk took a shot and missed. Keith got it in one of the cups, but Pidge did as well. The crowd around them faded around Keith as he realized that if Lance missed this shot they might not win. The thought of their bet nagged him at the back of his mind, but he decided to ignore it. _We won't lose, Lance can do this._

"Come on Lance. Do you want to win or do you want to kiss me? Don't fucking miss this one." Keith overlooked Lance's sudden destabilization, and tried not to think about what would happen if they lost. He wouldn't kiss Lance, would he? He almost didn't see Lance throw the ball which regretfully did not land in one of the cups.

"Lance and Keith, sitting in a tree-"started taunting Pidge.

"We're not done yet. Hunk has to get our cup down first." Keith said, cutting her off. There was only a small chance Hunk would get it in, but Keith did not want to imagine what would happen if he did. Hunk threw the ball and missed; but when Keith took his turn after that he also missed. _Darn fucking brain overthinking everything! The last thing I want to do is to kiss Lance and yet my fucking thoughts made it that much easier for it to happen._

As expected, Pidge did not miss the cup and Keith felt his heart fall down to his stomach as he stared at the ball floating in their last standing beer cup.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" chanted Pidge and Hunk. Keith painfully turned to Lance, eager to get this awful moment over with. Lance was blushing a dark pink, Keith choosing to assign its color to the alcohol rather than what they were about to do. _It's just a kiss, a regular peck. You've kissed people before, this isn't that different. Just imagine it's someone else, anyone but that asshole Lance._

"What are you waiting for, mullet? Let's get this over with." Lance stepped closer to Keith, setting the other's heart on a race.

"You can do it on the cheek!" Hunk yelled from the other side of the table, prying Pidge's hand away from his mouth as she clearly wanted them to go farther than that.

"You go… or me?" Keith asked, trying to regain control of his body.

"What, you're too much of a pussy to kiss me on the lips?"

"No."

"Really? Prove it!" Lance's smug grin was wiped off his face as Keith grabbed the collar of his onesie and leaned forward to plant his lips on his. Lance's lips were soft though rigid at first, but they relaxed as Lance kissed him back, raising his hands to Keith's shoulders. Keith moved his lips against Lance's, taking the other by surprise. Lance reciprocated, and Keith's heartbeat became a constant hum in his ears. _This isn't so bad._ Keith ripped himself away from Lance as the thought crossed his mind and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"There. I'm going to go take a drink now." Keith left, not bothering to look back at any of the others. His heart was still racing in his chest and the ghost of Lance's lips was still on his own. He found their vodka bottle on the drinks table and poured himself a fair amount in a red cup. After taking several gulps, the feeling was gone from his mouth and he felt slightly more at ease. _What the fuck happened? Did I just enjoy kissing Lance?_ Keith reasoned with himself that it had been the alcohol and the fact that Lance was a decent kisser. _Did I just admit that?_

He didn't have time to dwell on it however as Shiro joined him and introduced him to another person. He spent some time with them, and then went to fill his cup once more. The edges of his vision were starting to blur and he found himself filled with a pleasant buzz. Long forgotten was the horror and confusion of the kiss with Lance. Come to think of it, he hadn't crossed path with him again even though they were all in not so large living room. He found himself with Matt and some of his friends soon, talking about exams and classes, more listening than actively participating in the conversation. Taking out his phone to check the time, he saw it was already 11pm.

"You're Shiro's friend, aren't you?" asked Matt, taking Keith out of his thoughts.

"Yeah and you're Pidge's brother. You look like twins."

"If you make her a few inches taller maybe." Matt paused then added. "How's he dealing? You know, with Allura' passing?"

"Why don't you ask him?" _Didn't Pidge say that Matt didn't like Shiro? Why would he care?_

"Yeah you're right. I just thought he would never want to see my idiot face again, after what happened last year."

"What happened last year?" Keith tried not to sound too curious, but the alcohol in his system was making controlling his tone of voice rather complicated.

"He didn't tell you? Never mind then, it's the past now." Matt took a swig of his drink and went back to his circle of friends, leaving Keith alone to wonder what he had been alluding to. Shiro had never told him anything about Matt before today. _Why didn't he tell me? Doesn't he trust me enough?_ He decided to ask him about it later, mostly because he didn't trust his intoxicated self to not make a scene. Unfortunately, he was soon confronted by Shiro who needed a partner for a game of beer pong. Grunting at the idea of playing the game again, Keith followed nonetheless, thankful that Pidge was not there to set another bet.

They won the game, and Keith left the crowd to refresh his drink once more, this time going for a beer since their vodka bottle was empty. The room was less full than it had been an hour ago since it was now past midnight. People were leaving to go to clubs or just head home. Keith found his way to the couch which only had one person sitting on it. His body was now sleepy with alcohol and his brain quiet compared to the usual. He sat back and drank his beer half in a daze until the person next to him cleared their throat and he faced them. It was Lance.

"What do you want?"

"I still hate you."

"What?"

"That kiss didn't mean anything, mullet. I still hate you."

"I know. I hate you too, idiot."

Lance turned back and they both faced the empty couch opposite them. Keith continued drinking. Lance interrupted again.

"You suck at beer pong."

"You suck more. At beer pong, I mean."

"Like you would know about sucking!" Keith almost chocked on his drink.

"I bet you haven't even been with a guy."

"Oh yeah? Well I bet you haven't been with a girl!" Keith turned to face Lance and moved to sit more comfortably.

"Of course not, I'm gay." _Why did I just fucking say that? Too late to take it back now._

"Oh." Lance turned his gaze downward, and moved closer to Keith, their conversation now more intimate instead of yelling across the couch. "So that's why you're a shitty kisser."

"I'm not a shitty kisser, you are." Keith regretted that alcohol inhibited his ability for good comebacks.

"No, you are." Lance added, poking Keith in the chest.

"You." Keith said, pushing Lance's shoulder.

"You're the bad kisser here, mullet." Lance said, gripping Keith's costume and muttering the phrase almost between his teeth.

"Do you want to prove it, idiot?" Keith felt his gaze shift quickly to Lance's lips. So close. The attraction he felt didn't make sense. He wanted to kiss Lance again, but at the same time he would have gladly thrown him across the room. Bringing his eyes up, Keith hoped he would opt for the latter.

"Maybe I do, mullet." Lance paused. "Prove to you I'm better than your arrogant ass." Lance leaned closer and Keith felt his eyes flutter close, his brain no longer in control of his body.

Suddenly, he felt a small form push them apart and sit snuggly between them.

"Hello my gays! Am I interrupting anything?" Pidge said, her slurred words giving hints as to her drunken state.

"No" said Lance.

"I never told you I was gay." Keith said.

"Observation, my good friend. No one kisses another guy that way unless they're gay." Pidge grinned and fell back on the back of the couch. "Even I'm surprised you took the bet seriously, but that shit was hilarious!"

"We didn't have to kiss?" asked Keith.

"Well, Hunk did say you could have done it on the cheek. I'm glad you kissed for real though." Pidge giggled to herself, slightly scaring Keith. Thankfully Matt arrived at their rescue and grabbed Pidge.

"I'm going to make her drink some water. I think your friend is looking for you guys." Lance and Keith rose from the couch, Keith keeping his distance from Lance. He drank the rest of his beer, hoping he would remember none of this the next morning. They found Hunk and Shiro and walked back to the dorms after saying goodbye to Pidge and Matt.

Keith filled his water bottle and prepared some painkillers on his overhead nightstand and went to bed after taking off his costume. He almost immediately fell into a deep slumber, his mind and body feeling as if in a thick cloud.

He was awoken the next morning by a loud knock on his door, sending a painful wave through his already aching head.

"Keith, wake up! We're going down for the videos in a few minutes." Shiro yelled from the other side of the door. "Meet us in the lobby."

Keith groaned in response and Shiro left. He sat up in his bed and emptied his water bottle along with some painkillers. His brain felt like shit. His stomach felt like shit. He was convinced his liver felt like shit. Shit was his word of the day, and it became even more so as the memories of last night flooded his mind. Pushing them away, he sluggishly got dressed and was downstairs fast enough. The others were already there. Shiro looked like the only one who was not in pain. Hunk was sitting on the stairs, bent over. Lance was besides him, his eyes closed and holding his head in his hands. Worst of them all was Pidge, who had to also walk up here. She was on the floor, completely lying down with her eyes closed and facing the ground. _That doesn't look very sanitary._

They all looked up as he went to greet them, Lance barely acknowledging him.

"Hey, the mullet made it out of bed. Hurrah!"

"I'm surprised you weren't there with him Lance." Pidge's voice said from the ground.

"What? I don't know why you would say such a thing, Katie! I hate Keith!"

"Even after what happened last night?"

"What happened last night?" Keith let out a sigh of relief. If Lance didn't remember it would make it easier for him to forget what went wrong. Pidge opened her mouth to answer, her face turned to the side, but a warning look from Shiro dissuaded her.

"Nothing." She replied. Maybe things could go back to the way they were before, thought Keith.


	10. Pidge

Katherine Margaret Holt had never been one of those short-skirt-wearing makeup-crazed girls. As much as it pained her mother to see her prefer deconstructing a computer over going shoe shopping, she understood it made her daughter happy and could only love her for her uniqueness. When she was a waddling toddler she saw "The Lady and the Tramp" with her brother Matt who found her fluffy brown locks at the time so similar to those of Lady that he decided to call her Pidge.

It had taken a while for her family to fully embrace it, but now only teachers and her parents when they were angry called her Katie or even Katherine. She didn't hate the name with a burning passion like she would like her entourage to believe but she still cringed every time she heard it due to its strangeness to her ears.

The journey Pidge had started by completely deconstructing and reconstructing the old family computer had now brought her to be following university level courses in computer science online at the age of fifteen. While the kids in her class were waiting in earnest for the day they could finally drink alcohol legally, she only awaited the newest computer game or the latest robot model. Being teased for being nerdy was part of the course and she had learned to deal with the nicknames a while ago. Along the way she had become friends with Lance and Hunk, and she had never been able to leave them even though they were older and Lance was insufferable a third of the time.

So when she learned about their new entourage in college, she was doubtful at first they would accept her as well as her two friends did. She was especially dubious of Shiro whom her brother was slightly jealous of. In the end it had turned out even better than expected and Pidge was happy to be part of a group of friends as great as this one. Well, they weren't exactly friends as Pidge only met a third of the group a day ago, and Keith and Lance couldn't stop fighting for one second, but close enough.

Lunch and the party the day before had been fun and as she woke up the next morning with a killer headache and her stomach turned to jelly, her memories from the last day came flooding back and she couldn't hold back a smile despite the pain. She had known from the moment Lance started talking about Keith that the Cuban boy had a severe crush on the cute introvert, although he would never admit it. Finally seeing Keith made Pidge understand that the black haired boy couldn't care less about Lance; but she wouldn't surrender now. Hunk and she had always been Lance's wingmen as long as he had been dating, and though they were more embarrassing than helpful Pidge swore she would try to get Lance to confess his feelings to Keith, even if it took a year. Although she felt no sexual or romantic attraction herself, Pidge loved to mess with her friends' feelings, especially Lance's.

The beer pong game the previous night had been a surefire way to break the ice between the two rivals, but it had ended up better than Pidge could have ever dreamed of. She still doubted her memories since Lance and Keith both denied it from ever happening, but then again it is what they would do in such a situation. If only Shiro would let her ruin their established silence with some hard facts! But no, what she had to do this morning was not related to the undeniable attraction between Keith and Lance but rather to the wonderful grey and black surfaces of the CCTV cameras of the dorms.

"So are you going to get up or is the floor this comfortable?" Lance said, bringing Pidge back from her thoughts to the reality in which she was still lying face down on the cold hard floor. She managed what she hoped to be an affirmative mumble as she gathered the strength in her muscles to pull her body up.

"Yeah I guess we can get started. I mean you guys made me come for this, not the ridiculously lit party last night." She said once she was up. They moved together as a unit to stand outside the door of the surveillance room, a serious look on all their faces. All of a sudden, Hunk erupted into laughter.

"This is ridiculous! We look like we're about to break into a bank but we all we're doing is grabbing some video feed." The rest of the group joined him in a matter of seconds. _Onlookers would probably think we're crazy._

"Um, don't mean to be a killjoy but did anyone think about how we're going to get inside the room first?" Keith asked, having regained his composure first.

"Don't worry honey, I got you covered." Lance brought out a bobby pin from his pocket and faced the door quickly as if to hide to bright tint his cheeks had taken. He wriggled it into the keyhole, pulling out his tongue to prove his focus on the task. In a few minutes he had successfully opened the lock and had turned once again to face a look of utter surprise on Keith's face. Pidge snickered into her hand as Shiro shot her a disapproving look.

"Where did you learn this? Did your parents lock you up in your room or something?" Keith asked, sending Pidge into a fit of laughter.

"No… why would you assume that? That's such a weird idea!" Lance said, raising his arms in dramatic motions.

"Lance used to dream of becoming a detective and so he learned a lot of tricks, like picking locks or collecting finger prints. Never knew it might come in handy, but I'm not half mad." Hunk said, satisfying Keith's curiosity and making Lance blush a deep shade of red as he punched Hunk in the arm.

"Come on, let's get inside before anyone comes here." Shiro said, pushing the door ajar and entering the small room. The others followed and Hunk closed the door behind them as Keith turned on the lights. The room was utilitarian, the bare walls only covered by a single shelf full of CDs and a single desktop with a computer running. Pidge started looking at the CDs as the others hesitated on their course of action. She finally found the one she seemed to be looking for.

"Okay let's get this baby to my laptop!"

"Is that it? Is it really that simple?" Keith asked.

"Well I still have to verify whether it was tampered with or not on my laptop but yeah, that's it."

"Won't the guard or the police notice the disk is missing?" Keith stubbornly continued. Pidge hid a snicker in her sleeve.

"That's why I have my laptop in my backpack. Now if you'll actually let me do what you brought me here for." Pidge sat down on the floor and cracked open her computer. It took her only a few minutes to get the machine running and she introduced the CD into the slot.

It wasn't the first time she had stolen some video tapes supposed to be confidential. Pidge had had to tamper evidence a bunch of times to excuse her absences or just to mess with her teachers. She had adapted her computer to perfectly modify videos without a trace, but that also meant she could recognize if another video was tampered with. As she began to run the video feed from the night of Allura's murder, she felt the gazes of the four boys focus on her screen. She fast-forwarded until Allura appeared, alone. She heard Shiro's breath hitch and instantly felt bad for him, no matter what her brother said about how much a douche canoe he was.

Allura just stood there for some time, so Pidge accelerated the speed of the video until suddenly another figure appeared in the picture. It looked like a man, all dressed in black. At first he didn't seem to interact with Allura and only headed for the door; but as soon as he entered Allura's personal space, a blade appeared in his hand and he swung it against Allura's throat. The video was already of a bad quality so it was nearly impossible to tell what was happening between the two apart from the light reflection on the blade and the complete stillness of the two bodies. _They must be talking, fuck this stupid equipment for not having microphones!_ Pidge was nevertheless glad Shiro didn't have to listen to Allura's last conversation, even if it could have contained vital information.

Then suddenly, Allura slipped from her attacker's grasp and ran for the open parking lot. The man was faster. He grabbed her waist and flipped her unto the ground. She struggled and managed to break free, sending the blade flying off but not before it had made a considerably deep cut in her arm which was now bleeding freely. She ran again, this time making it off-screen along with the man pursuing her. None of them made it back until two whole minutes later, Allura in much worse shape than before and her attacker wielding a large pipe. She banged on the door to the dorms, probably hoping to attract someone, but the man was faster. He swung the metal bar sideways. Her body hit the railing where it bounced back unto the concrete. A few seconds later a dark pool of blood started to form and the attacker went over her body to pick up her wrist, maybe to check her pulse.

He dropped it back after finding what he wanted and stepped over her body once more, his own shape moving closer to the camera. The dark figure whose only distinguishing feature so far had been his gender raised his face to look at the lens, revealing his appearance. A chill ran down Pidge's spine and the common gasp that escaped everyone else's lips confirmed it was a shock to all of them. Even though the terrible quality of the video and the distance between the man and the camera allowed for some error, there was no mistaking who the man staring intently at them looked like.

The white tuft of hair emerging from the black hood of the man's jacket clearly identified the killer as none other than a Shiro look alike. As Pidge regained control of her breathing, she stopped the video and leaned down to scrutinize her laptop. She looked for the little signs that would identify this video as a fake. She could hear the deafening silence the reveal had left behind and focused her efforts on proving it wasn't true. It couldn't be true. Just as Shiro put his hand on her shoulder she blurted out:

"It's not a fake. This is 100% real. Whoever this guy is, he really wanted Shiro to be the number one suspect in this case."


	11. Lance 5

Two weeks had passed since Pidge's visit. Two weeks since they all discovered the incriminating evidence against Shiro. Two interminable weeks during which Shiro hadn't talked to any of them, closing himself off in his own studies, no matter how persistent they were. Lance had knocked on his door every day on his way to and from class, but no answer ever came. He texted Shiro at least twice a day, always hoping for a response but never getting any. Keith and Hunk had been as unlucky as he, so when he asked them for a team meetup on a Friday night, Keith reluctantly came by his room.

"Guys, I think we all know why I brought you here." Lance started.

"Because you were lonely and needed someone to spend a Friday night with?" Keith replied, his arms crossed and dark bags under his eyes. Midterms were mostly over, but the lack of sleep was making Keith even grumpier and if Shiro's health wasn't concerning Lance, he wouldn't have approached Keith with a ten foot pole.

"I told you, if you're going to be an asshole then don't show up! Yet here you are, so please be nice. If not for respect for me, at least do it for Shiro. He's like the only friend you have anyway; I thought you'd want to help him even more than us." Hunk looked pleadingly at him, but Lance didn't want to take his words back. He didn't like Keith but he couldn't bear to see Shiro lose himself in guilt again. Keith grunted and bit back his reply, so Lance continued.

"Shiro needs our help and I don't know about you guys, but I haven't been able to get through to him since Pidge left."

"Yeah, me neither man. I baked like three batches of cookies just for him and he ate none of them." Hunk added. "What about you Keith? He must have talked to you at least once. I mean, I know he's a senior and busy with midterms, but still; he's not the type to ignore his friends for two whole weeks."

"I texted him a couple of times and tried to get him to answer the door, but I only saw him once when I was doing laundry. He looked like shit."

"Thanks for your very descriptive information, Keith. Do you want to contribute any ideas of how we might be able to help Shiro not look like shit?"

"I don't know, man. I thought you might have ideas since you're the genius you decided to gather our sleep deprived and overworked brains here. I just got back from a midterm, so don't expect me to make any masterful contributions." Keith leaned back against the wall. He and Hunk were sitting on Hunk's bed, facing Lance who was pacing the space between the two beds.

"I tried everything I could think of, except for breaking into his room. You're not suggesting we break into his room, are you? I know we need to help Shiro but is it really worth risking being yelled at? What am I talking about; we might even get into trouble! We could get kicked out!" Hunk's tone rose as he looked expectantly at Lance who looked like he would shut Hunk down for a second but then split into his special shit eating grin.

"Actually, that's a pretty good idea Hunk." Hunk shook his head, trying to dissuade Lance. "I've tried everything in my arsenal as well and if we can't get Shiro to see us by playing by his rules, then we're going to have to make up our own." As Keith raised an eyebrow, Lance continued in defense "I'm tired too, so my metaphors may not hold up. Let me be!" To emphasize his point, Lance let himself drop dramatically on his bed.

"You're not serious about this, are you? How are we even going to break in…. oh wait, I forgot you were a criminal in another life." Keith said.

"I wasn't, I just know a few useful skills which you should totally learn."

"How is picking locks going to help me in any way?"

"Well, breaking in Shiro's room for once…"

"You're joking, right? There's no way in hell we're doing that!" Hunk interrupted.

"It was your idea Hunk, own up to your genius." Lance said.

"But it was a joke; I didn't think you would take me seriously. We can't break into someone's room."

"Can you think of any other way to get through to Shiro? We could always stand guard at his door and wait for him to come out, but I already tried that one evening and I fell asleep right there in the hallway. Plus, we still got some midterms and papers due, it's not like we can waste hours waiting for nothing. No, I think breaking into his room is the last option we got; it's the only option." Lance was now staring at the ceiling, looking at the barely visible stars looking down on him. _Hang in there, Shiro. We're coming for you._

For a while no one spoke. Lance felt his accumulated fatigue from the last couple of days start to overwhelm him and his eyes began to close. He shook his head and rushed his body up, overshooting it a bit and almost falling face first on the floor.

"So do we agree? When can you guys make it? I got some time tomorrow or maybe next Thursday…" Lance yawned "I can check my schedule or something." He looked at Hunk who was now waving a hand in front of Keith's face. Mullet boy had his eyes closed, his arms crossed and his face set in its permanent scowl.

"I think he's asleep." Hunk stated.

"Oh no, not for long he isn't." Lance shot up and went to shake Keith. "Wake up mullet! You can't sleep here!"

"I wasn't sleeping, just resting my eyes. Though I did plan on going to bed soon so if you don't mind let's hurry this up and we can all catch up on some sleep."

"That's what I was trying to do, which you would know if you were listening and not sleeping."

"Goddammit Lance, I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now. The least amount of time I spend around you, the better; so let's get this done." Lance was about to shout a very well deserved remark at Keith when Hunk shook his head gently, trying to calm Lance down and escape the growing tension in the room.

"Fine ass wipe. So, as I was asking earlier when you were pretending to sleep, when are you guys free? I got time tomorrow or Thursday; I can maybe make some time another day but I'd have to check my schedule."

"Thursday works for me. I got my last midterm that day so we can do it that night." Keith said, Lance knowing fully well which midterm he was talking about since it was the one in the only class they had in common.

"Hunk?"

"I got a thing with Shay on Thursday, but I can try to move it."

"Move it." Lance said at the same time Keith asked "Who's Shay?" Hunk turned a bright red and Lance groaned.

"She's this girl I met at the Halloween party. She's really cute and funny and smart and I really like her."

"Yet you still haven't told her that. You'd think that considering how much you talk about her you guys would be dating, but no, you're just friends for now. Just tell her how you feel man!" Lance said.

"I can't just ask her out, I barely know her. Besides, she could have a boyfriend. Or girlfriend. And I'm not sure if I like her that much yet anyway." Hunk defended himself. Lance was about to utter a response when Keith stood up and headed for the door.

"Well, it seems like we've got a plan but what's your genius plan once we're in?" Keith asked.

"I ….. Actually don't know. What do you tell someone who's being framed for the murder of his girlfriend?"

"As much as I think this deserves our thinking over, I am way too tired to think about it now. Comforting him seems a no brainer though." Hunk said.

"I guess. Maybe we can also find out who would want to frame him. You know, figure out a few suspects we can go after." Lance added enthusiastically.

"Sure. I would remind you one more time that you are not a detective but it seems pointless and I am falling asleep right now. Good night, I'll see if I can come on Thursday." Keith opened the door and left while Lance shouted "You better show your ugly mullet!"

Hunk chuckled and Lance let himself fall on his bed.

"Good night, Hunk. I think I'm going to crash as well."

Lance changed into his pajamas and slipped into bed. Once settled on his back, he looked at the stars shinning above his head like he did every night, spending a few minutes thinking about the people he loved. This was a trick he used when bad thoughts roamed his mind, and it usually worked, but not tonight. Now he was full of worry for Shiro and for his other friends as well. After all, there was a murderer in the school and just because there hadn't been a dead body in over two weeks it didn't mean they were safe either. As his thoughts when in a downward spiral, he imagined finding Hunk or Pidge dead, or maybe encountering the killer himself.

He mentally slapped himself and realized that while there was a danger around, nobody else was dead for now and that all he could do was protect his friends to the best of his abilities, and damn if he wasn't going to try to do that. Lance fell asleep dreaming about all of them coming out of this alive and unscathed, not even noticing Keith in the background among the other people he cared about.

They met one more time on a Tuesday lunch as Keith ran into Hunk and Lance at the pizzeria they were eating. He joined them reluctantly, but Hunk coaxed him by buying him a drink. They were one of the only people present since it was already 2pm, and so they could sit at a large table and Lance was glad to not have to sit next to Keith. They didn't talk for a while, Hunk trying to make conversation by himself and Lance and Keith having an undeclared and very annoying silent contest.

"If you guys are going to be like this, I'm going to leave. I bet I can find other people to eat with."

"Fine, Keith can eat with us. We need to talk anyway, I still haven't figured out a way to cheer up Shiro, or even suspects to point fingers at." Lance admitted. The truth was that he spent most of the last few days sleeping as much as physically possible and studying for his last midterm on Thursday, his pride forbidding him from getting a lower mark than Keith.

"Same. It's not like I haven't tried, I'm not the greatest at cheering and I have no fucking clue as to who would want to frame Shiro."Keith added.

"Aren't you his best friend though? If anyone has any ideas about potential suspects, I thought it would be you." Hunk said.

"Well, sorry to disappoint but I don't know jack shit." They ate in silence for a little longer.

"Maybe it's Matt, you know, Pidge's brother. She did tell us he had a bone to pick with Shiro, but not the reason why." Lance said.

"I don't think Pidge would be exactly thrilled with you accusing her brother. Besides, he looks nothing like Shiro, even if he died his hair or had a wig he wouldn't pass for Shiro on camera." Hunk replied.

"Okay, then how about a pissed off ex-boyfriend? Allura must have dated other dudes before Shiro, maybe one of them got pissed she was so in love with Shiro and decided on a little revenge." Lance supplied next.

"Wouldn't it make more sense for them to let Allura live in this scenario? If you like a girl so much you'd get rid of her current boyfriend, killing the girl seems counterproductive." Keith pointed out. "Are all your theories made of horse shit?"

"If you're so much smarter than me, then share your own opinions. I'm just putting ideas out there, it's not like I thought them over."

"I haven't thought about it enough to find a decent idea, because unlike you I don't accuse people indiscriminately nor find my ideas in terrible mystery fictions that make conspiracies look legit."

"Guys, can you please stop fighting? We don't need to have a list of suspects by Thursday. We have enough on our plate, no need for you to continue your dick waving contest." Hunk sighed.

Lance and Keith both groaned simultaneously and went back to eating their pizza. Half an hour later they left, promising they would reconvene in Lance and Hunk's room on Thursday before going by force into Shiro's room. Lance was slightly frustrated that Pidge couldn't be there and he had to deal with Keith, but the raven haired boy at least seemed interested in doing this.


End file.
